Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1922-02-03
COMMON SENSE IN MINING
 INVESTMENTS

Mining will greatly increase it's per centage of successes when the same cold, hard, common sense is applied to it that is demanded in the ordinary transactions of the daily business of the city. It is especially true in metal mining that men of the best business training throw to the winds all the accepted principles which have brought them success in their own af- fairs, when they undertake a mining venture.
 Some years ago a group of New York men, who have made millions of dollars in their particular business in New York, and who today are rated individually as millionaires several times over, bought mine in Arizona One of their number was made man. aging director. In four years of op- erations nearly $1,O0O,000 was spent on the property,-and only a hundred tons of ore were produced. One of the particular features of the under ground development was tunnel driv- en to open up ore, and this tunnel, having a total length of about 5000 feet, made a complete circle and came back to the point of entrance. Fur thermore, it was driven near the top of the mountain, so that even if it had disclosed a valuable ore-body, it would have been necessary to sink shaft in order to extract any consider able tonnage of ore. It was current talk in the nearest town that the course of this circular tunnel was the result of week to week directions tel egraphed from New York, and these instructions came from a consulting clairvoyant, instead of a consulting engineer. At any rate, fortune was spent on the mine, coming from the pockets of hard-headed and successful business men, and at no time did it receive an iota of the care and atten- tion which would have been given the business had it been transacted Tn New York. Faults were ascribed to the mine which really existed wholly in the management.
 During 1920, reports the Depart ment of Commerce X Labor mining added six billions, seven hundred and seven millions ($6,707, ,000,0O0) to the wealth of the nation, and more than one million workmen were engaged in these mining industries. Surely business of such importance deserves the very best business judgment and technical direction. In this connection two examples showhowchanges in the technical management resulted in making marked successes out of oper- ations which were pointed straight to failure.
 A few years ago miner of Utah, a practical miner"-a haze of TO- nance seems to hang about this title went to Chicago to place mining proposition before capital. Not many Chicagoans are so placed that they are acquainted with first-class mining engineers, because Chicago capital is not largely invested in mining. In this instance the men approached sent out as their representative to pass on the mine a superannuated mining en- gineer. He was an acquaintance ot one of the group, but he was too old to do the difficult and laborious work of thorough mine sampling, and yet he thought he could determine the value of a mine by casual inspection. At any rate, he returned to Chicago with a favorable report. The mine was bought for sum of money running into the hundreds of thousands.
 Then, because he was the "only man among us who knows anything about mining" the directors retained the man who sold them the mine as their general manager. (Parentheti- cally, it should be said that mining engineers recognize this procedure as one of the most fruitful causes of mine failures. It is done on the theory that the man who has been in charge of the mine knows most about it. But this is a fallacy that has cost many men hundreds of thousands to un- learn.) Mine operations began, and deficits appeared every month on the balance sheet. This continued for two years, with one explanation after an- other coming from the mine manager to excuse the conditions. Then at last one of the directors, wholly untrained in mining, but highly trained in the common sense of business, went to the mine to investigate. He was on the ground only few days till he fully comprehended the drift of mat ters. He recognized the inefficiency of the general manager, discharged him. and then on his own responsibil-