The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-04-24

and other facilities for removing, snip
ping and treating the ores at mini.
mum cost, and where the elements Oh
prospecting, speculation and everything
pertaining thereto, are eliminated.
Prospectors as a rule never make the
money that is made by others coming
after them, who work their properties
on a business basis, and who use all
known facilities to work them at the
greatest saving. 1t is an admitted TACT
| that with ordinary Judgment and the
means at command with which to de-
velop a property, there is no such thing
as a failure in the Leadville or Cripple
Creek districts. There are many fail-
ures made there, as elsewhere, by m
competent inexperienced men, with in
sufficient capital.
"A large per centage of the mining
claims about Leadville are owned by
non-residents, many of whom have not
visited the district in 20 years, while
others have not been there at all, haV-
ing acquired titles by inheritance or
otherwise. This class of owners are
prone to look upon whatever they re-
ceive from their claims much in the
line of gift of providence, and they
are therefore generally ready to lease
the claims for five and ten year pc
RODS to those who are familiar with
mining and will put in the time and
capital to work them. Usually when
a claim is leased, an option is taken to
purchase it within a certain time at
fixed price. Leadville mining men nat
urally take advantage of these circum-
stances and procure valuable lease
claims, thus expanding only the sums
necessary for machinery and labor.
These leases are effected for royalty
of from Is to 80 per cent on the ores
mined, payments being based upon the
smelter returns. In this way, having
no money invested in titles, it does not
take long for the Individual or leasing
company to find itself earning great
profits on a small investment. Fully
one-half of the immense production of
ore in the Leadville district, at pres
ent, is produced by lessees. Should
they afterwards conclude to buy the
title. at low figure agreed upon be-
fore the work of development began,
they invariably do so with the profits
from the ore production, for the pur--
pose of stopping the further payment
of royalties.
Some of these leasing companies
have made great profits. I may men
ton, for example, the Union Leasing
and Mining Company, which was or
ganized and began work in the sum-
mer of 1898, with capitalization of
9oUU,uUU, WIN ABOUT ~ acres on East
Fryer hill in their leaseholds. In less
than two years they produced over ST.
100000 worth of ore, paying to their
stockholders in dividends about $780,
900. and to the owners of the properties
about 100000 in royalties, the balance
being expended in labor and machin-
cry.
1.-THE Nab Leasing Company, located
on Carbonate hill, adjacent to the Ma
hala. Rialto, Marian and other we'll
known properties, began the shipment
of ore in August 1898, after a total ex-
penditure of $4,000; from that time to
Jan. 1, 1899, they shipped 1880 tons of
ore at profit to stockholders of near
ly 100000. and the company is now
shipping $50 tons of ore day at
profit of $50 a ton. They have long
since received the total cost of their
investment. and are now on what is
commonly termed velvet. 1 mention
these two as examples because of my
personal knowledge and familiarity
concerning them, as illustrations of
how mining is carried on on a BUSH
ness basis in the Leadville district to-
day"