The Alaska citizen., 1912-09-30
QUARTZ CAMP
 A CERTAINTY
 SAYS SMITH

On Wednesday night, in the small hall of the Auditorium. the knock CTS and boosters of the quartz around this camp were given food for thought. And the man who supplied that food. the man who served 1t to his audience in a plain. clean way was an expert geologist. a man who knows from years of study and practical experience whereof he speaks. It was not a fDwery talk that Philip S. Smith the government expert gave but it was founded on the rocks of truth and sincerity and common sense. l and when he finished there could but little doubt in the mind of the most pessimistic man there, that | around this camp are to be found | leads and quartz mines that assure Fairbanks bright future, Explaining at the start that his remarks would necessarily be of general nature.
 
 time to study finally all the speci. mems that he would like to have studied. and reminding his listeners that It would require considerable office work before he would care to make definite statement. Mir | Smith at once launched into the history of the quartz formation of this district. He took his listeners through three periods required to leave the ore in it's present condi- i tion. He expressed himself as being | well satisfied with the permanencv of the ore. q firmly believe that the gold has come from deep seated source. and that it is not SUI 1 perficial.' MT. Smith. however. made no prediction of the veins be- ing faultless. but assured his listen CTS that from miners standpoint i there was undoubted depth to the | quartz around this camp. Accord ing to MT. Smith many of the pros poets that he visited apparently had rich gold toward the surface, followed by a zone where the gold was not quite so rich. and this in turn followed by a zone of fair grade free milling ore of con siderable richness.
 1 You must not think that every | prospect is a mine," said MT. Smith but l think that there is promisa here for further development work that is sure to bring success" The geologist expressed himself as be- ing greatly impressed with the amount of work couple of fellows can do in this country. He advised the prospectors to sink tunnels and to stay with the ore He advised the people here against capitalizine prospect holes. One failure would do much to hurt the camp with everyone who invested their money in it. A man should not go into the mining business except on well established leads. You will always have much to learn about the depth of your veins" he continued. If YOU crosscut you are going into it blindly, and while in well-estab- lished camp this may be the proper method here l would advise you to stay with the ore, and see what is coming"
 Lode mining has gotten beyond he stage where it is a gamble Once having established the depth of your vein. you can estimate how much you will take out, and in time figure it out mathematically so as to practically know for certainty just what you have. Then you add on the ten or twenty-five per cent that your vein may produce above your reasonable estimate, and there and in that alone is the gamble in lode mining. That practically no samples for the full width of the vein have been made in this coun- try, but he pointed out that if ac. curate calculations as to the worth of the ore in the ledge were desired this sample would be essential
 The water question was given little attention by the speaker. but the fuel question he said was one on which the cost of mining must largely depend.
 ed him during his stay here as to whether or not Fairbanks would make camp of big mines. Mir Smith said, q cannot say as to whether or not you will have big mines here. The camp is still too young to determine that. but do think that you will have many successful small mines. l firmly believe that you have the basis of a good camp, but I do not think that all prospects will be sue cessful. Many claims that are stalk ed will not be a success. Remem- Der thousand dollars put in here will go long way. It is better to go slow and successfully, than to rush ahead and make a failure"
 All over the creeks. Mir. Smith