Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1922-03-03
By Henry M. Atkinson


 ing a profitable mine, if venture into your business of mining?" asked successful business man of New York of me recently. "How do l know" he continued, "whether the chances are in my favor or against me, and how shall I proceed in order to have the percentage of success in my favor?"
 Answering this question, l quoted a conversation l heard on this very subject in 1901 between Clarence King and E. D. Peters. An expression from men so prominent and so successful in mining as these two should be con- vincing to anyone weighing the possl- bilities of the mining business. Clar- ence King for many years before hls death in 1901 had been accepted as the leader of the mining engineering profession. As the organizer and first director of the United States geological survey he won wide recog- milton through his mining and geolog- ical investigations and his technical writing. At the time of which I speak was engaged as assistant to Mir. King, on , his last piece of mining work, in the examination of a mine in which E. D. Peters, famous in metallurglcal circles as the author of Peters or Copper Smelting," was an interested partner. Both King and Peters were wealthy through successful purchases and operation of mines and they were discussing this very point of chances for and against profitable investment
 Diversification Advised
 In expressing himself on the sub feet of mine investment, Peters, then - somewhere in his sixties, sald:
 "I have made many successful nm es, and my experience is that when select four properties which believe will make real mines l find that three of the four may prove either unprot- itable or simply mediocre, but the fourth will return profits so large that it alone will pay for the whole four of the group have bought.
 That was the experience and oplnloh of a mining engineer whose opera tions proved very profitable, and with this opinion MT. King agreed. Reduc- ed to the phraseology of modern con seryative investment, this expression simply means that safety lies in the "diversification of investment" which is always recommended by the bank ing houses, even when the investment is to be in bonds of the most con servative type. 1t is case of put ting the eggs in many baskets, al though it will be remembered that Mark Twain humorously modified this thought by saying that he found it a good rule to "put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket"
 If it is good judgment to diversity investments in high-class bonds, where the investor seeks "5 per cent and safety," is surely is equally iudicious when the investment is to be made in the more speculative and more profitable when successful, field mines. Surely no man goes into a mining project with the idea that he is buying a 5 per cent gold bond. He recognizes the increased risk in the speculative field, but he takes it for the sake of the greatly increased profit-and the large profit comes from the property which has yet to prove it's merit. Shares of Utah Cop per are suggested to investors by the conservative houses in the east now when the stock is selling at $65 pel share, but the original investors, such as the late Senator Boies Penrose made their great wealth by going ir when the shares were less than $5 each.
 Profits Enormous
 Since then these shares have paic in dividends approximately SIP each It is this phase of the business tha, makes mining so attractive. It is my experience that the speculative inves : tor in mines asks simply, "Shall have a better than even chance tt win? I do not sak absolute assurance of success, and shall be glad to have as big a chance in my favor as pos sible, but at least l want more thar an even break.
 In their search for mines many en' gineers demand conditions in tho properties they examine which pre- clude successful ventures for theil clients. They require developments o1 ore in the mine and terms of purchase which bring the venture so far into the field of investment that they elim' mate the profit which goes with spec ulation. On the basis of assured an6 certain results, mining becomes an in vestment and cannot be bought except on the terms of an investment.
 A famous and wealthy mine oper- ator of Denver, speaking of prom