Bisbee daily review., 1904-08-20
Conservatism In
 Mining Operations
WITH IT IN THE SADDLE MONEY IS READY IN ANY AMOUNT.
loca! Man Gives Expression to Views cn Manner of Development of New Property to Get Best Resuits-com nent on a Serious Fault That Has vietimized Many

While Mining Engineer Leandowsk! was in the city yesterday he was ask ed what form development on the prop critics he was now opening up at Para disc had taken. None further than the prospecting that every mining propertw should take before extensive and expensive workings, such as we are now about to begin, are started he replied. "I am a firm believer" :" he continued, in the policy Of know ing as much as possible about your ground before plungirg into big work By that l mean il is the part of good sense to be liberal in the matter of investigating your surface showings and sinking comparatively inexpensive prospect holes. and gathering from them the conditions. in a degree at least. that you have 10 deal with and satisfy yourself to a considerable de gree of certainty. if not an exact de gree, as to where your main workings can be commenced to best advantage UT course when you get down a thou sand feet or so. you may be able to see where you might have commenced 10 better advantage. but the chances are that your careful prospecting work Will have paid you a handsome diyf dend regardless of these much later hndings. There is seldom good ground TOT piunging straight into extensive "ork, though in a proven field it IS sometimes allowable. This however IS very rare. That is it is seldom done without the accompaniment later of much regret. Conservatism in all branches of mining is best for all pa1ties concerned in the long run. and piunger and enthusiast have made many more failures, particularly in new helSs. than he has made sue. cesses. With conservatism and care lul management stamped on a propo- sltlon in mining there is no trouble al this time about getting all the capi- tal that may be wanted for the back Ing of mining enterprise. With. out these marks, however. it will be 1cund a mighty hard proposition to get capital to take hold. It has had all the wlidcatt1ng il wants: legitimate min. ing enterprise on conservative lines if cannot get enough of to satisfy the present appetite"
 Another fact that may be consider co along with the above excellent points as conservative is that one of the most serious mistakes made in mine operation is the effort to make a large property out of a small one There are often found veins of large size in which occur a narrow pay- streak-large enough, perhaps. 10 Keep live and ten stamps employed. put which will not supply sufficient ore for larger mill. This fact is sometimes disregarded and g large mill is built on this really small mine and failure is the usual result. In some instances the fault lies in inc ueManos or the directors and stock hoiders, and at other times it may be charged to the management. A large low-gTade ore body with rich streaks or spots in it is all right if the low grade ore contains enough value to af lord a profit. without the aid of the fich streaks or spots. but when the rlch portions only pay it is bad bust ness 10 mine the great mass of ore ana mlI the entire vein to obtain the 'aIues from the spots, if it can DOS. sfoly avoided Occasionally this can. not safeiy be done, particularly where tne rich spots are concentrated in small spaces, like gold pockets. which occur in some mines. In such cases II IS found desirable at times 10 mill all the vein material. that none of the gold shall be inadvertently thrown over the dump. There are instances. however, where the values occur in certain strata or in good-sized- punches. and these actually constitute all the pay rock in the mine, but in the de sire to make large showing a big mill is built, a great many more men are employed than are necessary. and the property is operated on an exten- sive and extravagant scale. The re- suit is never satisfactory unless the good ore is sufficiently rich 10 pay all the expense of ext-avagant man. agement. This condition is found in copper. silver. lead and zinc mines. as well as in those producing gold A number of instances can be mentioned where this policy was pursued until the concerns were wrecked financially, to be subsequently reopened by others, who successfully worked the mines on scale commensurate with their magnitude, and in practical, com mon sense manner.