The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1921-07-07
MINING PROFESSIONS
ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS
FROM ADDRESS TO GRADUATES
OF COLORADO SCHOOL
OF MINES.


pany, delivered an address to the
graduating class of the Colorado
school Of mines in which he placed
special stress upon the qualities ne
cessary for the young engineer to
possess in order to achieve success in
the field OF mining and metallurgical
operations. He said in part:
Commissioned Officers of Industry.
you are at the commencement of
your professional career. You have
finished a course of study which is
admirably adapted to serve as a foun-
dation or groundwork upon which to
build. So far you have done well, and
l assure you that you will never re-
gret the time you spent at school
Your four years here have placed you
in a similar position with respect to
your chosen profession as four years
at West Point or Annapolis place the
man who selects an army or navy
career. You are the commissioned
officers, as it We're, of the great Or
ganization upon which humanity de-
ponds for it's supplies of metals. In
other words, you are presumed to
have the basic knowledge which will
enable you to become good leaders
after you have acquired a practical
knowledge of men and affairs.
when you were in high school and
were making up your mind as to
what kind of a career to follow, whe-
Their business or professional and If
the latter, what profession, you knew
that whatever choice you made would
determine the course of your lives for
yeares to come. and so now again you
must make a choice between the
various branches Of your profession,
and the choice once again made, you
must carry on, or stand to lose what
may well be years of effort.
ITO begin with, the profession of
mining, as it is commonly called, may
be divided into two main branches
mining and metallurgy Mining has
to do with the mining of ore. Metal |
urgy has to do with the treatment /
of ore Mining and metallurgy go
hand in hand and yet they appeal so !
differently and require so much |
knowledge of a special character that
in most schools the student is per
mitted to specialize in one or the 9th
er during at least part of his course.
"The mining engineer aided by his
knowledge of geology, concerns him
self with the finding of ore, and with
the mining Of it to the best advan
tage. The metalmrgical engineer re-
ceives the ore and with the aid of
his knowledge of physics and chem
istry as exemplified IN the various
ore treatment processes, separates
the valuable metals from the gangue
and from each other.
Methods Change.
In the early days of mining, only
the richest ores were made use of, and
only the simplest methods, both of
mining and metallurgy, were known
and applied. A comparatively mod
est capital was sufficient to start
mining enterprise Those days are
past, generally speaking, and now
enormous capital is needed for the
benehciation of the comparatively
low grade and complex ores from
which our present supplies Of met
ais are derived.
I'VE hear much nowadays about
the exploitation of the natural re-
sources of the country-of the people !
being robbed of their birthright and
so on This agitation is even extend .
ed to include water power sites, as
though water, once over the fall,
could ever again be of use to the ma
ton Modern mining and metallurgy I
are so largely dependent upon cheap t
power that agitation of this sort be- !
comes properly of concern to the min &
ing engneier, quite apart from the {
self-evident fact that the disuse of
water power constitutes a very ser-i
Gus economic waste, and every engi-
neer as a good citizen should set his
face against waste of every kind.
Every horsepower we allow to run
down our streams means FASTENED
depletion of our limited supplies of
oil and of coal. not to speak of the
waste of human energy indirectly in
volved.
1T goes without saying that the I
rights of the people-all of us-must J
be protected, and it is highly import G
ant for our representatives to enact
designed to prevent waste Z
of our resources and to protect us Z
from extortion and profteering. At 8
the same time, it is wrong to hedge :
around the resources of this country {
with red tape so as to repel the cap
ital which must be forthcoming be-
fore any benefits can accrue. Very s
few people realize how relatively val {
ueless is raw material in the ground, s
and what an enormous expenditure I
of money. effort and time is required !
to make it useful to mankind. :
EIectrolytic Zinc Process. t
1.-THE rate of progress thta can be
attained by organized research is
when compared with the
accomplishments of the Individuals
tic methods of the past. AS an ex- &