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Show FACTS ABOUT MINING COMPANIES. Some years ago there was brought to New York a remarkably fine nugget of gold, which was said to have been found in a California mine. Portions of it, cut off under the direction of the owner, were assayed by experts, and the mass was estimated to be worth considerably over $100,000. Having secured a loan of several thousands of dollars on it from a confiding banker, the owner dispatched it to Paris for exhibition, and thereupon quietly disappeared from view. It was soon returned to New York, and remained for some years in the custody of the broker who had advanced money on it. After his death, heirs sent it to the Government Assay Office to ascertain its value. The first cut of the assayer's chisel revealed the fraud. There was first a layer of gold, then one of silver, a third of copper, and the remainder was a solid mass of lead! The net value of the nugget was less than $600. That ingenious imposition very fairly illustrates the character of a large proportion of the mining companies which have organized in the country during the last few years. They have borne the outward appearance of honesty, and, backed up by estimates and opinions (well paid for) from eminent experts respecting the great value of their property, the originators of the various schemes presented to the public have found little difficulty in transferring vast amounts of money for the pockets of investors to their own. There is something exceedingly fascinating in the idea of having an interest in a gold or silver mine; but, as many a rash investor has learned to his cost, it is apt to prove a good deal more fascinating than profitable. The unsubstantial character of the greater number of the mining companies whose flaming prospectuses one meets at every turn, is clearly brought to view by some recent investigations, made by a gentleman who communicates his discovery to the Evening Post: An examination of the annual reports of forty eight companies, organized under the laws of the State of New York, show the following startling facts. The total capitalization of the forty eight companies reaches the enormous sum of $117,155,000, an average of a little over $3,000,000. The each total amount paid in cash by the first shareholders in these companies was $909,875, or about six-tenths of one per cent of the paper capital. But this amount, it appears, was all paid in by fourteen companies, the other thirty-four not having paid a single dollar into their respective treasuries. And of the fourteen companies, five paid in $785,000, leaving only $124,875 to be apportioned among the remaining nine. The largest sum paid in by any company was $250,000 - the smallest $50. The latter concern has a nominal capitol of $2,000,000! Six companies having a capital of $10,000,000 each and one of $20,000,000 have not paid in a solitary dollar. But they have debts aggregating the neat little sum of $859,112. The entire indebtedness of the forty eight companies is $1,853,357.70 or more than twice the amount paid into the treasuries. These are suggestive facts. We commend them to those who are tempted, by the promise of fabulous returns, to risk their money in mining organizations. There are a few companies whose shares it would be safe to buy, if any could be found for sale; but they are seldom on the market. A newly organized company in whose "securities" it is safe to invest is as rare, almost, as blackberries in winter. Most of them will not bear investigation. The first stroke of the chisel lays bare the worthless lead beneath the glittering surface of gold or silver. - N. Y. (New York) Examiner. |
