Gilpin observer., 1914-02-05
I Ta1 AND '41ss5aTss{ +'s svsso { @ j
(salt Lake Mining Review

(Salt Lake Mining Review
"This little 2x4 patch of white
sage We stumbled onto this morning.
said ire prospe ctcr to his burro,
looked very tempting to sou al
though 1t was SO small that it would
not last twenty-four hours, you rath-
er insisted on our camping there, US
Ing as an argument In favcr of your
proposition that II the supply of
white sage seemed like a handout
from starving prospector's pack,
you could make it go further by mix
Ing 1t with lot of the salt grass
growing thereabouts; which all goes
to show that you are like many two
footed imbecilos who imagine that a
good dollar thrown in amcng lot
of counterfeits will make the whole
lot lock- possable; or like many min
ing men | know of who claim they
can make low grade ore and country
rock marketable by mixing ighgrade
old codger l once knew who played
every winning number open, and cop
pered all the ones that lost. j see
you do not agree with me, and argue
that 1t is economy to mix the good
with the poor, the highgrade with the
country rock. as thereby the aggre-
gate and tonnage is greatly increas-
ed. But, none whatever, for it is
such false reasoning as this that has
led to many failures in business af-
fairs and in the mining game.
II once knew a man." continued
the prospector, "who never really
knew the true values of his ore bod
les, and who fondly imagined he had
a bonanza in his property; whereas,
than few tons of shipping ore, al
though he had a large measure of
good-looking rock to draw from The
vein was from four to six feet wide,
but averaged but $500 in gold to the
ton; and was absolutely SO lowgrade
that it was practically worthless. In
spots in the ledge there would be
small stringers of an inch or two
which, by themselves, would assay
up to $50 to the ton, but these en-
riched zones were few and far be-
tween, like your periods of seeming
intelligence. This man, however,
whenever he would encounter these
bands and seams of high grade, he
would take samples clear across the
four or six feet of the face, if the
average was $3.50, he would go per-
fectly wild with delight, for this was
good milling ore. Eventually, after
blocking out several thousand tons
OF What was virtually country rock
he put in a milling plant, and told
his badkers to get their pockets full
of bank deposit slips, as he would
be turning out dividends by tie bas-
ketfull before the end of two months.
You say this was a fine-hearted
man, and that you would like to put
|
are right as far as his being a good
fellow was concerned, but he was en-
tirely off in his diagnosis of the val
lie of his ore, for repeated cleanups
disclosed a recovery of only SIZE
per ton, while tie mining and mill
ing costs amounted to over $4.O0. AS
for his hackers, they got tired wait
ing for velvet money from $500 ore
and used their deposit slips to keeI
tally on for baseball and race tracl
scores. The poor man, however
never could account for the discrep
ancy. He knew that the tonnage hat
been put through all right, and the
ore. some of it. had contained mat
erial from the high grade streaks
and he could never be made to be
lieve that, by his method he had i'm
poverished the rich ore, by the mix
ing. without materially raising th'
value of the almost worthless rocl
he had been putting through his mill
81 want to tell you.O Long Ears,
concluded the prospector, you can
not sweeten the ocean by pouring
bucket of spring water into it, no
can you add to the value Of a tol
of waste by mixing in with 1t
pound OF $25 ore. You had bette
save the pure water and the good or
until you get barrel of the forme
and a ton of the latter; until yo
have acquired something of real va
ue; and there you are, and the
some.'