The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1922-03-02

Oh nry III. a k / n n in Salt Lake
Tribune.)
What are my chances for develop
ing a profitable mine. If L venture into
your business of mining?" asked a
successful business man of New York
OF me recently. How do 1 KNOW he
continued. whether the chances are in
my favor or against me, and how shall
] proceed in order to have the per-
centage of success in my favor?'
Answering this question, l quoted a
conversation l heard on this very sub
Jet in 1901 between Clarence King and
r. ID. Peters. An expression from men
so prominent and so successful in min
ing as these two should be convincing
TO anyone weighing the possibilities of
the mining business. Clarence King
for many years before his 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 recognition through his
mining and geological Investigations
and his technical writing
At the time of which l speak l was
engaged as assistant to Mr.. King. on
his last piece of mining work. in the
examination of a mine in which Z. ID.
Peters, famous in metallurgical circles
as the author of Peters on Copper
Smelling" was an interested partner.
Both King and Peters were wealthy
through successful purchases and OPP
GRAFTON of mines and they were dis
cussing this very point of chances for
and against profitable investment.
DiVersificatIon Advised.
In expressing himself on the subject
of mine investment. Peters. then
somewhere in his sixties, said
Il have made many successful mines,
and my experience is that when 1
select four properties which l believe
will make real mines | find that three
of the four may prove either unprof-
liable or simply mediocre but the
fourth will return profits so large that
it alone will pay for the whole four of
the group l have bought"
That was the experience and Opin-
ion of a mining engineer whose opera
tions proved very profitable, and with
this opinion Mr.. King agreed. Reduced |
to the phraseOlOgy of modern cOnserv-
alive investment, this expression sim
ply means that safety lies in diver |
sification of investment" which is al
ways recommended by the banking |
!. s.I
to be in bonds of the most conserva- /
tive type. Ii is a case of putting the !
eggs in many baskets although it will |
be remembered that Mark Twain hu-
mOrOusly modified this thought by |
saying that he found it good rule to !
put all your eggs in one basket and |
then watch that basket"
II it is good judgment to diversity
investments in high class bonds where
the investor seeks 80 per cent and
safety" it surely is equally judicious
when the investment is TO be made in
the more speculative, and more profit
able when successful, field of mines.
Surely no man goes into a mining
project with the idea that he is buying
q per cent gold bond. He recog-
nzes the increased risk in the specu-
lative field. but he takes it for the sake
of the greater increased profit-and
the large profit comes from the prop
erty which has yet to prove its merit
Shares of Utah Copper are suggested
to investors by the conservative houses
in the east now when the stock is SELL
ing at S65 per share. but the original
investors, such as the late Senator
Boise Penrose made their great wealth
by going in when the shares were less
than IS each.
Profits Enormous.
Since then these shares have paid in
dividends approximately s72 each. 1t
makes mining so attractive 1t is my
experience that the speculative inves-
tor in mines simply asks, Shall
have a better than even chance to
win? / do not ask absolute assurance
Of success, and l shall be glad to have
as big a chance in my favor as posi- !
BILE, but at least l want more than an ;
even break"
In their search for mines many en- 4.
gineers demand conditions in the prop
critics they examine which preclude
ventures for their clients. {
They require developments of ore in
the mine and terms of purchase which S
bring the venture so far into the field 1
Of investment that they eliminate the \
profit which goes with speculation. {
On the basis of assured and certain I
mining becomes an invest I
nent and cannot be bought except on '
The terms of an investment Z
A famous and wealthy mine opera S