Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1910-07-16
BACK, BACK TO DESERT; IS CRY:

the members of the local mining
fraternity. The oder of sagebrush
is greeting the nostrils, inviting
back to the desert all who have ex-
perienced life in the wilds. One
senses this feeling long before the
possessor gives expression to it.
Mining goes largely by moods or
fashions. When copper, for instance
climbs to 20 or 25 cents pound las
it does once or twice in a lifetime,
the world will listen to: nothing
but coppersmining and copper pros
poets go like the proverbial hot
cakes on a frosty morning. Oc-
cassionally silver lead or zinc reach
unusual heights, and the world
sends in a demand for silver, lead
or zinc mines. When the thing is
overdone or when prices reach such
level that the weakest must quit,
all eyes then turn voluntarily to
the most attractive form of mining,
one never without its charm, and
that is plain gold mining.
For the past two or three years
local operators have dropped every
thing in order to concentrate their
time and pursuits on copper Cop
per production, however has by a
natural process of evolution, been
brought to most scientific basis;it
is reduced to the principles of a
commercial proposition, involving
millions of dollars in equipment and
enormous mining milling and smelt-
ing facilities Such a program is
far beyond the average man or
company of men, And before copper
mining will take on it's proper hue
again some of the big problems
now confronting the industry, such
as the relation between production
and consumption, will have to be
| solved.
The every day mining man has no
bus mess taking on copper mining
proposition these days. He is be-
ginning to realize this. 1t is mat
ter of continual speculation why
no new big silver-lead camps are.
being discovered, while on every
hand one hears of the new gold
camp. To own a good little gold
mine is the ambition of every
normal man; to be the boss and
beneficiary of proposition which
with a modest and inexpensive
equipment, will bring in a steady
income from month to month, is the
desire that is calling men out into
the desert again. And they are
going.
There are many advantages in
gold mining which are foreign to
the other branches of the industry.
1t is free from many diseases that
Eare prevalent among other propo-
sitions not exclusively gold pro-
ducing. Tonnage is the. great
essential, but no more so than in
copper, silver, lead and zinc mining
But small line of proper equip
ment will do away with many woes
of the management, such as smelter
exactions excessive freight rates
on ore and other ills so often aired
in reports to stockholders You do
not have to watch the metal
markets, nor do you have to stay
awake nights wondering if that
last, car happened to strike the
market on the day when lead was a
few cents cheaper than the day
before You take the product of
your little plant and trade it to the
government for bright new gold
pieces.
So the call Of the desert is being
heard again The fecentaccount
of the finding of rich ore in the
National mining camp IF Nevada
are serving to aggravate the inclin-
nation, and there are the successes
of such camps as Goldfeld to beckon
the mining man to the sage brush.
1t is back to the deserts, and the
ynovenoent 10 hound m oro,u Salt