The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1916-09-21
Enlightening the East On Mining
Industry of the West

lprospecter and his opportunities, pres
lent and future. Some authorities
maintain that ne Is disappearing and
attribute to that fact--if 1t Is fact
a growing scarcity Of good new mines
and developments. Unless something
can be done TO increase prospecting,
they say, mining must decrease 9th
ers agree that the prospector Is dlsap-
pearing, but believe that he ought to
fade away--that he is a figure of the
past, and that his results do not JUS
tify his labors They point to modern
devices like the diamond drill, with
which hill, in a mineralized section,
can be explored with such thorough
ness and economy that in comparison
the old-time prospector's surface
lscratchings are more or less haphaz-
ard and futile They say that pros
Ipecting will soon be organized on an
engineering basis, with motor truck
laboratories for testing all the likely
outcrops in a mineraized region, 50
that where once months were wasted
in bringing in few specimens for as
say, now the whole region can be rak-
ed with fine comb In a single sum-
mer, and the gleanings tabulated on q
card system, ready for the capitalist.
Still others think of Quitting the
prospector himself with a card sys-
tenn, so that he can be turned loose in
the hills to send back everything he
finds, good or bad, labeled with letters
and figures; and then this great mass
OF specimens, once assayed, can be
catalogued and cross-indexed in the
same way
But 1t Is by no means certain that
the old-time prospector is disappear
ing before the march of mining pro
gress. The motor truck and card in
dex schemes appear to be more eff
, cient in theory than they are in the
T actual discovery of minerals and even
the diamond drill can not always be
, depended on, where mineral veins have
, a perverse way of running straight up
end down and eluding the drill, as. in
the case of the country around Butte.
The prospector is still very much in
evidence in the west, He finds far
more than his share of mineral The
scientific mine expert may point out
the prospector's inefficiency, main
| tanning that only ~
ten ever finds anything of value, and
that only one prospect in hundred
ever proves worthy of development
and that hardly one development in a
the prospector persists and frequently
. finds things that discredit the experts
Never year goes by but some prac.
teal prospector with experience and
faith and work, develops mine in
, some region that the experts have de-
clared barren of mineral in paying
quantities.
Not so long ago, for instance, an
old-time prospector uncovered leaC
ore-running 80 per cent with
, ounces of silver to the ton-near ar
, Idaho camp, ON ground which miners
and mining engineers had been walk.
ing over for 20 years.
one of the richest zinc mines in the
Occur d'Alene district was the result
of the work of certain prospectol
who built his cabin up gulch AM
OF In ella ,,,bi ,h
most of the authorities declared, haC
, never been known to carry mineral ii
that region. The boys down in CAM
made fun of Jim, the prospector, ant
, tunnel they said that he stuck to the
place because the tunneling in slate
, rock was easy, When the European
war broke out his mine was still un-
known to fame, but it had already
proved its worth by shipments of ricl
ore when the boom in zinc came along
and it was developed into one of the
. greatest zinc properties in the world
It's shares had been sold for years at
rs cents on the little mining stock ex-
changes of the west. During the past
two years this mine has paid share
, holders more than four million dol
lars, or almost 80 per cent of its total
capitalization. A share that could
lave been bought for quarter of a
dollar three years ago now yields So
a year in dividends. Every prospector
IN fln 70 10 ~.
mine when he leaves for the hills with
his burro and tools and the chance
that those expectations may be real
lied is what leads the average west
erner to chip in toward the grubstakes
that keep the prospectors out work.
ing.
The Neglected Sheer Zone.
One of the western colleges Of mines
i.,r.. n ~.