The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-13
GOLD MINING OF THE FUTURE.

letudISy OF IluilleTence OF us present. III
habitants. Its varied, heaIthful and
delightful climate and its fertile soil, pro-
ducing everything necessary for the COM
fort and delight of man, are the first great
factors assuring this future. Next in i'm
portance are its inexhaustible resources of
the precious metals and the useful min
erals, affording permanent and profitable
field for the investment of accommodating
capital and the employment OF increasing
population. Then comes its incompara-
bic location in the center of continent at
the gates of the sea, inviting and compel
ling the commerce of the whole Eastern
world.
The precious metals and useful minerals
are usually found in regions unfit for cult
walton, and the wealth produced from
these sources is directly a clear gain to the
community at large, and indirectly OF great
advantage to the various industries it fos-
tiers and supports. The farmer, the manu-
facturer, the mechanic, the merchant, all
share in the benefits flowing from the
mines. OF all the metals and minerals
found in California-and the list includes
nearly everything of commercial value
gold has been and always will be the most
important. Long after the natural fertility
of the soil has been exhausted by constant
cropping and artificial means have to be
used to insure its profitable cultivation, the
gold mines of California will be pouring a
constant and bounteous stream of wealth
into the channels of trade and commerce.
The dwindling production of gold in
California since the superficial deposits
were exhausted. and especially since the
stoppage of hydraulicing on what may be
termed the semi-superfcial deposits of the
old river channels, has created wide
spread impression that California in its
gold production has entered upon a per-
manent decline. This impression has had
much to do with diverting capital and en-
terprise to distant regions, especially to
Africa and Australia, where the condi-
tions in the new gold fields constantly
being discovered are much the same as in
California in early days, with the impor-
tant difference that the alluvial gold
found is very limited in quantity and ex-
tent, and the work done and the capital
invested is mostly in quartz.
The significance of this difference in the
pioneer workings of the respective coun-
tries is,lost sight of by those who argue
that South Africa and Australia are des-
tined to supplant California as permanent
gold fields. The California pioneers paid
but little attention to quartz, and later,
when developments were prosecuted quite
extensively throughout the State, the
workings generally were abandoned at
about the water level, except in veins of
extraordinary richness. As experience has
since taught, in permanent veins the water
level is about the right place to begin ex-
tracing ore. The early miners not only
lacked experience, but were handicapped
by the excessive cost of labor, supplies and
machinery and the scant knowledge pos
sessed of methods for successfully reducing
refractory ores.
The miners OF South Africa and Austria
liza have all the experience, the improve
ments and the economics of the past to
profit by; but all these advantages do not
put those countries on par with Califor-
MIA even in early days. They do not counter
balance the excessive cost of communica-
ton and transportation over vast desert
areas; the scanty supply and often the
total lack of water for mining and even
and timber for fuel and construction.
These drawbacks exist in greater or less
degree in all the new gold fields of South
Africa and Australia. None of them exist
in California. But most important of all
is the fact that in all these new gold fields
the superficial deposits are shallow and of
limited extent. Does this not imply that
the quartz veins are not so large, so numer-
Gus or so rich as in California? If they are
or have been, the evidence would certainly
exist in the placers.
The fact that South Africa and Australia
are forging ahead of California in total
gold output is easily understood when it is
known that one hundred dollars is being
spent in prospecting and development
work in those countries for every dollar
expended in California. This seems an ex-
travagant statement, but the files of the
London Financial News, one of the greatest
authorities on mining in the world, show
that in London alone new mining COM
panies are being incorporated and capital
lied at the rate of twenty million dollars
month. A careful perusaI of the expert
reports which form the basis for the launch
ing of these new companies shows that the
majority of the mines are located i'll
distant, difficult and often dangerous
regions of the interior of Africa and Aus
traha; that the veins are small, irregular,
often totally undeveloped, and their value
assumed from some shallow prospecting
on contiguous property; that every COM
modify and convenience of life is sold at
extravagant prices; that water has often
to be distilled for drinking purposes that
wood has lately been reduced to SIS per
cord; and so on through the catalogue of
prohibitive hindrances. Yet these com
panies are following each other fast and
furiously, with hardly days intermission
between their glowing prospectuses, some
of them capitalized at two OR three mil
lions, with working capital" of half
million, every dollar of which will be put
into the ground in quartz veins or hunting
for quartz veins, and back of all these COM
panies stands strong and liberal Govern
ment, lending substantial aid and en-
couragement to every progressive encroach-
ment on the remotest frontier.
California has never had any such pros
pecting as this, and certainly don't want
it; but suppose one-tenth of the same
amount were devoted to legitimate deep