Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-01-24
OPENING UP A MINE.
How the Prospector Entices the Capitalist
Into the Speculation.

How the Prospector Entices the Capitalist
Into the Speculation.
Working a gold mine sounds very
nice, but very few people are aware of
the difficulties and expense attending
this operation.
There are plenty of men in this city
who have been "bitten" in small min
ing schemes, and who do not now I'M
derstand why they were failures, says
the New York Herald. 1t is a very
common thing for some hopeful pros
pector to stumble across ''croppings"
that show free gold, and that, from all
appearances, could be worked to adj
vantage with the expenditure of
little money.
The first thing the prospector does
is to ''think up" some capitalist friend
whom he thinks would be willing to
invest in the enterprise. He then
writes letter something after this
fashion:
81 have one of the finest PROPOSE
tions ever heard of. Ihave discovered
groupings that indicate the presence of
ledge eight feet wide, and which I
am certain will be found permanent.
1.-The groupings show that the ore
will mill at least $50 per ton. Let US
say, then, that the ore will only yield
half this amount.
''This mine can be worked-that is,
the ore can be mined and milled-at
minimum cost of So per ton. This
will leaYe net profit of, say, So. Now
the groupings show along the surface
for two hundred feet below. There is
no doubt that the ore will hold out,
and after the tunnel is run there will
be sin sight" practically twenty-five
thousand tons of ore, which at So per
ton, will, as you will readily see, yield
profit of 100000.
''All / need is enough money to run
this tunnel. | can then haul the ore to
a custom mill (there is one about
mile distant,) and after that the mine
will pay for itself. l only need So, GOO
at the outside, and if you will put up
this amount you may have half in
terest in the property"
On paper this is a fine proposition.
A sure fortune for $4,000. The capt.
alist is caught, and up goes his $4,000.
The first thing to be done is to drive
a tunnel into the solid rock some eight
feet square and distance of 200 feet.
A double shift of men, say eight are
hired, also blacksmith to sharpen
the tools, men to clear away the
ground. etc. This can easily be ac-
complished for $50 a day. A house or
cabin has to be built, but this will only
cost some $500. Powder, tools, tim
bers, lumber, and provisions will make
the first 81 200, to use popular ex-
preston, 'loOk awful sick"
For the first few days the work pro-
crosses favorably, and the capitalist
receives the most encouraging letters
from his mining friend. After that the
letters are less frequent and not near
so encouraging.
The miners have ''struck a horse"
This is generally some rock about as
easy to drill through as SO much cast
steel. A hole six inches deep may be
drilled into the rock in about ten
hours, and when the giant powder car
tridges are put into this hole they
shoot out as if from cannon.
There may be ten feet of this sort of
work, there may be fifty; at any rate,
before the difficulty has been over
come, some $4,000 or more has been
sunk in the enterprise, and the ground
scarcely scratched.
Ofcourse more money will be demand
ed, and then still more until the cap
italist becomes disguised and quits the
thing altogether. This is the way it
generally works.
Difficulties are not only encountered
in running tunnel or sinking a shaft.
such as the caving in of the work, re-
bellious rock, and others too numerous
to mention; but it is often discovered
after the tunnel has been run the de-
sired length that it should have been
run in some other place.
To estimate the actual cost of the
opening up of mine from the ''grass
roots" would be very difficult matter.
Under the most favorable circumstan-
ces, however, unless pocket or bunch
of very rich ore is encountered, from
100000, to SIS, 900 may be set down as
a very close figure to put mere ''pros-
pecf' in paying condition.
AS much sometimes as 100000 are
spent in opening up a mine before
any .'money" is taken out. All this
refers merely to those ''little" mining
propositions or ''fyers." as they are
called, in which the uninitiated, in the
hope of becoming millionaires on a
dollar" investment, come out In al
most every instance at the small end of
the horn.