Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1910-10-13
The Make Shift in Mining.

The make-Shift in Mining.
The following communication, taken
from the Mining and Scientific Press
in we'll worth reading:
Mining is business which in most
cases requires large capital for equip
ment and development, and often a
goodly sum for operation as well, and
those whose lot has been cast among
the more fortunate enterprises, where
capital was abundantly supplied; where
every modern device was sought re-
CARELESS of its cost; and where the pre-
vailing idea was that thoroughness in
up-to-date equipment meant economy
of operation, would be surprised to
know how much can be accomplished
with the simple and inexpensive, though
ingenious, mechanical contrivances, in
troduced by mine owners of small
capital often practically none at all,
and by lessees whose bank account was
all to be created. When l first went
to Leadville and into Cripple Creek dis
trict the mines which / had left and
with which l had grown up were large
affairs. Ponderous hosting machinery,
great mills, and large-scale operations
were familiar, and I was surprised to
see some of the mines of the two Colo
RADIO districts mentioned which had be-
come famous for output, and had earn
ed worldwide regulations, equipped
with small hosting plants; two-post
head-frames from which dangled trip
rope, and many of them without mills
of any description. In some instances
a tripod straddled shaft answering
the purpose of head-frame, and yet
I it had served its purpose in hosting
with a 'dinky' engine upward of a
million dollars worth of ore. IN Joplin
district, of Missouri. may be seen sur
face equipments which would, and do,
bring broad smile to the face of a
Western States mining man, and yet
these cheap homemade affairs answer
every purpose and not few of them
could be copied with advantage by
some of our western engineers, who
like to plan and construct large works
too often before they have mine.
The tripod and the two-post head-frame
with their trip-rope attachments, have
their place in the economy Of mining as
we'll as the tall, carefully designed,
steel structure with automatically
dumping skips. Many lessee has
got his start by working faithfully 1C
hours or more a day, operating hand
jig in making a rude classification OF
his ore-and not so rude either, for the
hand-jig, when properly constructed
and operated, is by no means pool
concentrator, but it is. like its fellow
, pioneer, the arrastre, machine Of
woefully low efficiency. but again, eacf
answers certain useful purpose, anc
! is the poor miners make-shift. Much
can be accomplished by means of these
homely mechanical contrivances. anC
they should not be despised, for it i.
safe to say that the proportion of fail
4 ures where the wlndlass, the dinky
: engine, the arrastre, and the hand-jie
9 have been the main features of equip
ment, has been below that of thos,
e ventures characterized by magni6cenc'
3 of surface equipment and abundance O.
, hot-air enterprise, at any rate the re
t suits of the failures of the former typ
d have been less far-reaching in thei
e disastrous consequences, involving bu
e few and generally survived by tn
s principals. Not that the principals D
s the latter kind do not survive-unfor
e tunately they too frequently do, to re
peat over and over again their peculia
s hobby, that of extravagant equipmen
|. regardless Of the actual demands o
: their enterprise.
Il