The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1905-03-31

known to humanity. The extraction OF
the precious or money metals has occu-
pied men and capital with fascinating
interest for centuries. The fact that
almost every other line of human enter
prise is more or less subject to monop-
oily and to trust combination makes min
ing a unique industry. 1t is practically
the only field today in which the poor
struggling prospector has an equal
chance with the owners of untold mill
ions.
As a business, considered not from the
speculative but from the conservative
side, it offers greater returns than any
other known occupation. There are two
phases of mining. One is the specula-
tive stock side and the other is the min
ing of the precious metals with a view
to actual production. In this latter light
mining is nothing more nor less han a
manufacturing industry; just as steel is
a finished product from raw materials,
so are gold and silver finished products
OF ore and quartz.
The West, though it has produced
ma~rvelously, has, from a mining stand
point, hardly been ~prospected. AS rail-
road transportation has reached remote
sections of the West, as freight rates are
slowly diminishing, and as improved
metallurgical processes are constantly
reducing the cost of production, mining
has Appropriated more and more a solid
business basis.
Mining as a business is highly sue
c~essiul. Conducted in an honest and
intelligent n there are few failures
connected with it. There are failures,
it is true, but wherever it has been pur-
sued as a business, as in South Africa,
on the Mother Lode in California, in
Virginia City, New, at the Treadwell
mine on Douglas island, or in the Home
stake il the Black Hills, at Butte City
or Jerome, AriZ., immense fortunes and
tremendous rises in values have been
the rule. 1t is IN successfully managing
the mine. Many mining companies go
to pieces on expensive and luxurlously
furnished offices and high salaries. No
business on earth can stand 80 per cent.
OF its income paid in the non-productive
investments of fiscal agents, commits
sions and high salaries.
lI..,, ro,-rn, that thn worry lnrraSt
possible per CEN of capital raised should
90 into actual development under the
direction of experts; in work that de-
velops: in work that counts in protita-
bic returns. Mines are actually found
by miners, prospectors, and those tamil
lar with the hills and with formations.
Most of the great mines of history have
been discovered by accident and at the
cost of a few dollars.
The location of a mine is simply a
question of faith, persistence and luck.
The development OF a mine is a question
of capital, intelligence and honesty. 1t
is a question of careful calculations be-
tween the cost of production and the
value per ton, a question of the same
nature as that confronting the merchant
if he would make his business success
ful. But the merchant must always sell
his goods subject to a t1uctuating mar
ket, while gold has a staple value and
unlimited market. The manufacturer
is constantly at the mercy of the law OF
supply and demand, but the gold miner
simply goes to the mint with his pro-
duet. The merchant and business man
must count a percentage OF loss for bad
debts, but in mining there is no such
loss. The advantage, therefore, is largely
with the miner as compared with the
business man when losses and market
are considered.
Mining investments, intelligently
made, are far preferable to most invest
ments offered by industrials and rail-
roads; and while to the man who de-
sires to invest in mining stocks there is
more or less uncertainty, if he will bnt
satisfy himself as to the personnel OF
the company, and of the possibility OF
the locality in which the company oper-
ates, and the company's properties, he
ought to be reasonably secure.
NEvADA's E OUTPUT.
One OF the most richly mineralized
zones in the world.
Statistics show that Nevada is second
to California in gold output, a fact not
generally known. She has produced
81 ,544, SOC, 900, in round numbers, of the
precious metals.
She has produced more than Alaska;
More than Australia;
More than Colorado and Montana
combined;
She has produced more than Montana,
Utah. Idaho, Oregon and Arizona COM
bined. Nevada comprises fourteen
counties. Mining districts in about
ovorv coupfy