The copper era., 1905-06-01
Abandoned Mines.


 duced a great deal of money, but that they were worked out and aban- doned. This evenlby men who have had years of experience in the min ing business, showing how widely ex- tended is the impression that mine once closed down has been done so because of it's being worked out, and that it is permanently abandoned.
 About year ago Curle, who has visited several hundred of the largest gold mines of the world and has given considerable attention for a number of years to the business side of gold mining, announced that tat last Stratton's Independence has en- tered the class of worked out mines, and has been abandoned by the con- pany." Yet, within a few months of this statement, under other condi- tions, the mine began paying for the company net revenue of from S30,- GOO to S50,000 a month, and from the operations of lessees the company has declared at least one dividend, and others are in sight. Such a com plete and immediate falsifcation of the judgment of such an authority as Curle caused us to look up the sub ject of abandoned mines, and a brief examination of the subject has dis closed some remarkable facts.
 The well-known mines of Larium, in Greece, which 5000 years ago sup ported a population of from 10000 to 5000 people, and which gave to Athens the wealth which enabled the famous architects, sculptors and poets of that renowned city of learn ing the necessary leisure to pursue their arts, have been generally re- garded as worked-out mines. Today, after being abandoned for perhaps two thousand years they are produc- ing, and producing well. The famous mines of Spain, which were the pri- mary cause of the great Punic war, resulting in the downfall of the great world power of Carthage, were like wise abandoned for some 1,500 years. Today some of those mines are so fiourishing that the companies can is- sue bonds redeemable ninety-nine years after date.
 To come nearer home, it is safe to say that nearly all the great mines of Leadville have been abandoned at one time or another. Gilpin and Clear Creek counties, Colorado, are dotted over with abandoned shafts, capital directed by experiedce and mining skill, to again yield immense amounts of treasure. The great United Verde of Arizona, which has given to Senator Clark so many of his millions, was at one time aban- doned. We have heard it stated that Col. c. c. Bean once swapped lome of the claims forming the United Verde group for span of mules. It is historical fact that of the mines of Amador county, Cali fornia, only thirteen have never been abandoned. Many of the claims abandoned have been sold even for taxes at sheriff's sale. Yet, within within few years -sf such sale they have been yielding anywhere from s1O,OOO to $5O,OO0 a month.
 The mere fact, therefore, that a mine has been abandoned, is no cri- terion as to the degree in which the ore has been worked out. There may be in many such old mines, large blocks of ground which, if properly handled, under modern conditions, would yield large revenues. There may be, too, ore bodies of high value yet to be discovered.
 The operations of a mine go on in cycles. There is a period of hesi- tancy and doubt, a period ot pros perity, a gradual cessation of work and then abandonment. These cycles frequently repeat themselves several times in the same mine. One cannot help but think that the way is paved for abandonment by the practices that spring up in the days of pros perity. Directors are too eager to divide dividends, sufficient thought is not given to the economic treatment of the ore, and, in the time of pros perity, provisions are not made for the time when leaner ore bodies have to be taken care of. One of the most fruitful causes of mines being closed down is the lack. of develop ment work. Ore reserves are not blocked out sufficiently far ahead so that when the ore becomes suddenly low grade the stockholders are called upon to pay assessments where they have been receiving dividends. They soon tire of paying such assessments and gradually the day comes when money is pnt up more and more grudgingly until funds cease to come in and the mine is closed down, per haps to be sold at sheriff's sale for taxes shortly afterwards. Had the ore been blocked out well ahead, and if reserve funds had been maintained in many cases it would have been