Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1879-02-28
THE OND.
AN ENGLISH MINING EXPERTS ESTIMATE OF
ITS ORE RESERVES.

Manager Richard Cpsets His Calcu.
Iations. and stamps His Estimate
of Reserves too Low by More tilan
$1,000 Tons.
Among the many egregious blunders
that have been, and are still being made
by English mining interpretations, doing
business in this State. the greatest, the
most reprehcnsible, because the most IN
excusable, we think, is that OF sending to
this country to examine and report upon
their mining properties, men utterly I'M
acquainted with both the characteristics
and conditions Of the properties to be sub
mitted to their inspection. Will foreign
mining companies never learn anything
from experience? The Richmond Com
pany, not satisfied with having sent to this
district a Commission Of Inquiry, which
taxed its shareholders to the tune Of
$780, 600, must supplement 1t, at a later
date, by a One-man commission, sent out
here last September, in obedience to an
absurd recommendation OF that equally
absurd and expensive commission de in
quirendo, which made it obligatory on the
Board of Directors to send out to this
State, once a year, an agent, whose duty it
should be to examine and report upon the
condition of its mines and works. Well,
that agent has been here, has returned,
and has already reported. Reported, what?
Why, that the Richmond ore reserves had,
in some unaccountable manner, become
reduced to the attenuated and insignificant
bulk Of IL, 900 tons ! Twelve thousand
tons l.! Great Caesar {! what was the matter,
Captain Tonkins, that you could not see
more than twelve thousand tons of ore in
the subterranean depths Of the Richmond ?
We're you laboring under some strange opti-
cal delusion, which possessed the power Of
preventing you from seeing things as they
existed, or were your abilities Of SO
cramped in order that you found yourself
unable to do Justice to the Incompatible
property you had examined? Strange,
that a company, such as the Richmond,
should have fallen into the error Of send
ing q Cape of Good Hope copper miner
to report on silver and lead ores. What, in
the name Of goodness, could such a man
be expected to know of either the ores,
or the mining operations of a district such
as this? Captain Tonkins, without submit
ting any measurements or other data,
which one would expect from q man of his
supposed requirements, says authoritative
ly that there were not more than IL, ZOO
tons of ore held as reserves in the mine at
the date of his departing from here for
London. Fortunately, however, the repu-
tation of neither the mine nor the district
has suffered at his hands, for it is now very
evident that those most interested paid out
little attention to the unsupported and, as
ment II his selfish fic;ent FnoI;sh eynert
Verify ~ ali 81 the Messrs Jobn TAYLOR
4 Sons travelling mining exnerts nossess
No mnro ah;I;ty or eyI,;b;, no qraot er
Lno,vIodoa ~ their nrofass;on tben did
M Tonl;ps II ia M wonder that their
m s;nsss has declined and the credit NJ
,ha;r Arm become ;niured what should
he thorobt here Of n mining man who
wo,Id nndertake IN estimate tI,e ore ra-
serves or ore bodies Of a mine nnon some
theory Of his own without 30 much
as furnishing the measurements Of
said ore odies. or even STATING the
npmber NJ cubic feet to the ton How
Wa all IN the absence Of sncb necessary
data. could his fipures be checked. or his
assert;ons Rented Were he 4 master Of
his business and a proficient in his calling.
ba wonId know that a renort des,itnte of
sucb facts was utterly yaiueless as dozen
mentarv nroof.
How Is il that Mr.. Richard writing tn
London on the same dav that Captain Ton
kins lii could furnish both the measure
ments and the exact number of tons of
! reserves in the mine at that date
M Richard. as il well known in Lon
aon has never been known N commit
himself 10 the folly of making exaggerated
statements. Hence the entire conf
dence with which his report was received.
while that Of his more pretentious friend
| fTonkinsl was quietly pigeon-holed. after
HAVING been read nv me Board. Mr..
Rickard conld see and measure more than
36. 600 tons of ore in place. while the