Arizona republican., 1898-07-09
BONDING AND LEASING SYSTEM.


 BONDING AND LEASING SYSTEM.
 Mining men in southern California seem to have neglected the advantages that have resulted to other mining countries from bending and leasing mining properties. It is true that a certain amount of mining enthusiasm must be engendered in a certain d1s- trict before this system can be fully put in practice, yet there are many properties scattered through the south ern half of the state, owned by men who have good thing, and know they have it, but are unable to furnish the capital to properly develop their mines. The plan cf leasing new and unde- veloped property should thrive ln -Randsburg and similar camps, where the necessary faith in the country ai- ready exists, and particularly where the working miner as a lessee has fa- cilities for the treatment and sale of his ore Aspen and Cripple Greek are shining examples of what can be done with the leasing system, as hundreds
 
 these places will bear evidence. Among the capital prizes drawn by lesse5s may be mentioned the Chnson lease on the Moon Anchor mine, at Cripple Creek, where the lessees took out in one year s3OO,OOO, and brought an ob- scure mine into prominence as a ho- nanza. The Maroney lease on the Anchoria Leland produced $235, 600 in six months, and nearly dozen sets of lessees on the Pike's Peak mine have become rich through leasing. It en- ables men of small means to get into a favored locality, and take chance at the capital prizes that are usually reserved for men of large means, and at the same time develop the owners mine without cost to himself but profit.
 To illustrate the system: A owns a mine in favorable locality that is un- developed. B is a miner, or a man of small means who has been unable to get mine of his own. A and B agree that B shall lease the mine of A for the term of one year, B to work sixty shifts per month, to have the privilege of taking, extracting and shipping ore therefrom, B paying to A as rent there for either a straight or graduated roy atty, running usually from ten to sixty per cent, after deducting milling or smelting and freight chargas. Where a bond is given with the lease an op-' tion to purchase is written out and us- ually accompanies the lease, in which it is agreed that if at any time, with in the period of the life of the lease, B shall pay to A the sum agreed upon as the price of the mine. A will COZ vey it to B. The usual practice is for A to place a deed in escrow in some bank, under an agreement that if B pays the purchase price within the des- ignated period, the deed shall be turn ed over to B. Sometimes, the pay ments on the bond are partial; the amount of the bond being $50, 900, B agrees to pay to A $5,000 in thirty days, $10,000 in three months, S15 900 in six months, and the balance in one year.
 Sometimes mines are leased :n blocks, and dozen sets of lessees may be working at the same time on the same claim.
 am aware that great deal of leas- ing and bonding are being done in Randsburg and vicinity, but not enough. Why should so many miners waste their time prospecting in the desert, wnere, if a mine is found, it will be impossible for the prospector with limited means to develop it and make it a paying mine when he can with much more hope of success get a lease near a paying mine where, if he strikes pay ore, he will have railroad and milling facilities that will insure him success
 In two or three years from now the business men of Los Angeles will awake to the fact that many rich mines have been opened up in the back country, have passed into other hands and are beyond their reach, te- cause they did not reach out and take them when they could have been ob- tained. For three years after lhe dis covery of gold in Cripple Creek, Den yer capitalists could not be induced to invest a dollar in the mines, while the Colorado Springs people, having faith from the start, invested and reaped their reward.