The San Francisco call., 1897-01-04
MINING BRINGS
MONEY WEST
The State Mineralogist'S
Report Shows En-
couragement.
All Sections of the State Feel
the General Pros
perity.
Capitalists Begin to See That Their
Money Has Rare Chances in
California.

| Tn view of the widespread interest
abroad in mining matters in California the
last report of J. ]. Crawford, State Miner
alogist. is fraught with more than the
usual interest.
Though the report is for the two years
ending September 15, 1896. it has just
been issued.
1t appears from the report that nearly
| 55 600 persons interested in mining mat
ters have visited the museum IN two
years, showing an average OF more than
| 1000 persons each month, and nearly 700
new samples have been la beled and added
! to the list of curiosities.
That foreign capital is seeking invest
ment in California mines as it has not
| d one for years has lately been shown by a
series of articles in THE CALL. The State
| MineraIogist shows that this is true. I'm
| der the heading of Quartz Mining" he
says:
| am pleased to say that continued activity
| has prevailed, and still continues in nearly
| all lines of the mining indu stry, with every
encouragement for still greater future devel-
| opment. A great deal OF capital is seeking in
! vestment in legitimate mining enterprlss IS,
and it is matter for eongratulation that the
/ citizens of California show confidence in the
mines of their own State by investing as liber-
ally as non-residents.
While nearly ali other industrial pursuits
are stagnant and Improbable, that OF mining
seems to have proved profitable and remuner-
ative during the past few years Statistics
show that of all the industrial occupations
! mining is the most profitable. The average
| annual product or earning per capita, in Cali
| forDia, of those engaged in farming is about
$500; IN manufacturing, incinding It's o9un-
ties, about $1,000; in mining, with all its bur-
| dens and penalties, nearly $1,000 And yet
many people denounce the business of mining
as comparatively precarious and improbable.
The censuses of 1894 and 1896 OF those en-
| gagged in mining, milling, quarrying, we'll
| boring, etc, prepared from the reports OF our
| field assistants, show an increase OF over 40
| per cent during the past two years. 1t is DOS
| sible that some hundreds of white men and
! Chinese were not enumerated, 1nasmueh as
many work alone, ground-sluicing or rocking
in ravines remote from the mines and the
/ roads.
The report shows that 1876 men were
engaged in mining in 1893-94 anQ that th1
number was increased to 19, SOB in 1886.
Re- ardihg the localities that have -eaped
benefits from the influx of capital, Mr..
! Crawford says:
While gold still continues to be by far our
largest mineral product, the annual value of
! our on-metallic substances has now reached
! $50; hydrocarbons and gases, 81 404,-
! 81, and structural materials $2,7l3,755. 1t
is worthy of note that in addition to the pre-
cious metals there were tEirty-six other min
eral substances produced. From the above
! table 1t is evident that the great increase was
due to the mining of precious metals.
1
/ tracted to any one particular section, but
every gold-producing county shared in the
general prosperity. Trinity and Shasta coun-
! ties on the north have been particularly
favored by large investment of foreign capital,
and the operations of the Mountain Mines
/ Company Qlimitedl have directed the atten-
j tion of prospectors and others to copper, and
! its exploitation is again becoming quite gen.
eral. The mother-lcde belt, which extends
through a number OF counties in the State. has
! become faYorite field for investors in gold
bearing properties, and some gigantic opera
| tions are in progress and con interpolation. The
demand Tor the Bureaus geological map of
| the mother lode exhausted the supply, and
| new and corrected edition was issued last
spring. Allmineral patents granted to January
OF this year, and SO much of the ''Mariposa
grant as could be deiineated upon the map
without changing its form, have been added.
maps issued within the past year by private
parties, but the demand for our map con-
! tinues.
! So great an interest has been taken in the
subject of the mother lode that the lectures of
our cura tor. Henry S. burden, and H. W. Fair
banks, Phi drew respectively large audi
notes, and lis very interesting and useful pa
per. "Ore Deposits, With Especial Reference
70 the Mother Lode, Is printed in the latter
part OF this volume. The close study Mr.. Fair
banks has given to this subject while in the
employ of the bureau makes him an authority
and his paper valuable South of Tehaehani
the same general interest prevails. In Kern
County, forty-five miles east of Mojave a new
district was formed during the winter of 1896
If the ledges hold with depth, Randsburg will
become an important mining center, although
II experiences serious drawbacks in scarcity of
Doth water and fuel. The outlook for River
side, San Bernardino and San Diego counties
is promising, and the last of the three boasts OF
having mill Golden Cross containing the
greatest nun Der OF stamps 100) under one
roof in the State, although the total plant Q4O
stamps) is equaled by the Utica-Suckle
Particular attention is called to the list of
mills inserted at the end of each county un-
der the head OF "Gold," which has been pre-
pared fromthe notes of our field assistants
The report shows the results of mining
by counties, and covers alt classes of pro-
duction, from bItuminous rock TO gold. It
VIII be forwarded to any citizen OF Cali
fornia Tor IL cents and to those outside of
the State for 81. The data submitted will
probably attract considerable capital to
| the Golden West