The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1916-09-21

TWO good VEINS VI olS' S'
arriving a fourth tunnel much lower
down. to tap their veins 1000 feet deep
ar II was a good mine-and 1t Is
good mine today. There were about
zoo stockholders in that company
don,t know who they We're. for | was
not a stockholder. / was only an en-
Moved engineer to make report.
NV renort said: Your mine is a
good one--the opening of the vein at
the great depth that will be reached by
the lower tunnel should make it big
nroducer of ore. 1t will take about
10 months longer to drive the lower
tunnel in to the vein, and will cost
about $4,000 month for that time
After that you can expect the mine to
produce profitable ore, if you spend
$4,000 for 10 months in driving the
tunnel"
Do you know what those 500 stock
holders did? They just sat down
quietly and waited 10 months, with
out making any more payments or fur
nishing any money at all. OF course
the work had to stop. There wasn't
money enough coming in to pay even
a Waterman. at the mine which had al
ready spent 100000.
Ten months later the stockholders
began writing to me, saying that 10
months were up" and that l had said
s'the mine will be producing in IL
months" OF course l had told them
nothing of the kind. l had said that
.if they furnished $4,000 a month that
they could expect the mine to be pro-
ducing at the end of that time"
The man who was manager of that
mine is now a very high official, and
a very competent man in mining oper-
ations. but at that time he was poor
man working for wages, and had to
hunt another job when the stockhold-
ers quit furnishing money for his and
the miners wages.
That mine. of course couldn't pay
bills; it's cars and track We're stolen
when they couldn't pay Waterman,
and it was idle for years, and abandon
ed. Later it was taken up by others
and is today good property.
The outcome of that experience of
Is years ago is that / learned lesson,
and that is-never set time limit
when a mine can be exepcted to pay.
Ii you were to ask me when will a
mine pay would answer, when a
level has been run 1000 feet, or 5oo
feet, or 100 feet, or whatever work
had to be done. Never in months.
You might ask me. when can l
rent rooms in a new hotel ! am going
to build?" The answer is, when it
is completed" / don't know whether
you are going to build it in six months
by rushing the work, or whether you
will build it at all, or build it next
year or year after. 1t is evident that
the quicker you get it completed the
sooner you will begin to collect room
rents.
l find that 80 per cent of the min
ing proportions that stop work are
forced to stop by the stockholders fall
ing to push the work-failing to pro-
vide funds. When mine manager
SAYS, I'VE can have the mine produc-
ing in six months or a year." the
stockholders sit down and wait year
and the mine stands idle. Some
times they are abandoned, and the
same manager will hunt up someone
else TO buy 1t in, and open it. Thus
the same mine, with the same mana
ger, becomes a big paying mine. and
the stockholders accuse him of being
crooked-When their real cause OF loss
is that they didn't furnish the money
to open it and get the ore out.
If you are a stakeholder in any
mine, and you have sat quietly by FOL
years, without making any effort tc
keep your mine running, you deserve
to lose every cent The hardest par
of mining is to raise funds sufficien'
to develop it right. You expect a Sec
rotary or a manager to raise th'
money" and keep the records and di
rect the work. Suppose you were cleo
ted secretary, could you do it? You'
expect others who were interested II
raise some of the money, too, wouldn'
you?
A director, or officer is only stock
holder, like yourself, who has beel
elected to act as head, or keep
record of all business. Maybe he ha
less stock than some of the othe
stockholders. Don't blame him II you
work isn't going on as fast as you
like to see it, he can't make 1t g
faster than there is money to pay 10
the progress. He simply directs VIVA
money there Is to the best advantage
and keeps a record of what Is dom
Stockholders have no one to plane pu
themselves for speed of progress.
There are hundreds of mines no
working that were started by som
former owners, who failed, and CAV
1t up. New men took it up. and wer
ahead with the work and reaped u
profit the original owners might nay
had if they had gone ahead. WI
the exception of two, ! think ever
operating mine in Tonopah and Goi'
field is reorganization-reor