The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1883-12-12
From the Daily of Tuesday
POOR A
Why the Mining Operations Fail
to Effect Sales.
Some Straight Talk for Mine
Owners.

Some Straight Talk for Mine
Owners.
A Word fol the Mining
Operator.
From every quartz camp on the
Pacific Coast the same cry is heard.
We want capital to d~evelope our
mines - and from the almost uni
versal demand of claim owners for
cap. tai for development purposes, the
inference is natural tt ut every aid
would be extended to operators from
abroad who are wiling t take hold
OF the undevelvped prospects and
put money into their development.
But the complaint is general among
mining operators that this is not the
case, and that, on the contrary, their
experience is that they have more
difficulty in bringing the claim
owners to a reasonable proposition
than they d. in inducing CAPT.
talists TO invest in their proper
ties. Butte may be taken as q
fair sample of the effect of this
narrow guage policy Of owners upon
the prosperity Of the camp. During
the past season tie MINER has
chronic!ed the arrival of probably
more than. n hundred representa-
tlves of foreign and eastern capital,
who come to the camp in search of
in Investments. More tnan q score of
properties have beel bonded, but al
though q large number of trans
actions have been contaminated
by local men as the out
growth of local interests, we
have yet to chronicle the consum-
nation of a single sale IS the result
OF negotiations with any representa-
tive Of capital from abroad. The re-
sponsibility for this condition of
things cannot be laid at the door of
the mining operators, who are seek
Ing legitimate investments, f.r cases
have come TO our knowledge in
which, relying upon their bond,
they have gone east, interested their
capital and brought the twenty dol
lar pieces to Butte, with which to
fulfill their contracts according to
the conditions of the bond, only
to find complications arranged in
their absence, the object of which
was solely to place them in a position
by which more money could be
squeezed out Of them. A case in
point is of recent occurrence. A
property had been bonded at $40, 900.
The operator went East, organized
his company, and returned with the
president and an expert, who exam
med the property and made a favor
able report, upon which the presi-
dent signihed his readiness to draw
his draft for the purchase money.
At this juncture the m~ine-0wner
that the new company
would want the water right, without
which the mine would be worthless,
and which he would sell for $50, 600.
The water was free when the bond
was given, hut while the operator was
East working up a sale Of his prop
erty, the owner had killed the goose
from which he expected his golden
egg, by filing upon all the available
water in the nejghborhood. The
property was dropped, and capitalist,
operator and expert turned their !
backs upon The district, out of pocket
thousand dollars for expenses |
and thoroughly disguised with their
in Montana. Nor vas this
an isolated case, for a number of in
have been brought to our no. !
tice in which it would that
lnine-owners were disposed to do
everything in their power, not only !
to retard the future advancement of
their localities, but were actually
working to render their own proper
lies ~valueless.
Another influence which tends to
repel capital is the high price set up
mere prospects. AS soon as a
strikes a mine, as a rule he is
seized with the idea that be Is the
possessOr of a $40, 900 mine and when
! purchaser presents himself, forty
dollars is his price. It
lon't occur to him that before his
prospect becomes a mine it will cost
him twenty thousand more to devel-
op it, or that if luckily, 1t does turn
,ut q mine. a couple of hundred
thousand must he invested IN a mill
Or smelter in order to reduce the
ores, and that all this money is hard
get. Whenever the mine owner
comes to the conclusion that the OPP
orator who acts as a middleman
between himself and the cap
is. doing a service
is attended with great
difficulty, without which his pro- !
perty would be practically valueless;
and evinces a disposition to o
operate with him to the extent of
him the same aid which he
extend to any other party
with whom his interests were mu-
tual. Then, and not until then, will
operators find in Montana
camps a favorable field to operate.
Another obstacle to investment In
Summit Valley properties is the lack
IF custom mills and smelters. The
reduction works are all crowded with
work, and more ore is offered to those
mills and smelters which do custom
than their capacity will enable
them to do. Were Butte provided
with extensive custom mills and
,melters, investors could purchase
properties for development without
The prospect before them Of the
investment in reduction works
before the property could be made
and the result would un-
be the purchase and opera
ton of a large number of properties
which are now lying idle.
Fire at Anaconda.