152 MINING. 



mercial businesses, if undertaken in good faith and carried 

 on in a legitimate manner. The choice of location, mode 

 of development and prosecution of the work, choice of 

 officials and employees, processes, machinery, tools, etc., 

 all are of great importance in starting, carrying on and 

 organizing the business, and ought to be decided upon 

 only after carefully examining and looking over the 

 whole situation and taking into consideration all sur- 

 rounding circumstances affecting the business generally, 

 especially the particular mine or mining location under 

 consideration. 



Every mining operation requires special treatment of its 

 own, even when in the same district and when the same 

 kind of mineral is being mined and reduced by adjoin- 

 ing mines. The same course of working, or treatment, 

 may not even be suitable for different parts of the same 

 mine to obtain the best results, and different localities 

 may require different methods entirely for carrying on 

 the business, even when the mineral and general charac- 

 ter of the mines may be the same. Fuel, water, climate, 

 transportation, market, labor and government, are all 

 important factors and must be taken into consideration 

 in making up the plans of operation. Many good 

 mines have been ruined by management which failed to 

 comprehend and apply the necessary means suitable to 

 its own surrounding circumstances. Of course all mines 

 cannot be worked at a profit, no matter how well man- 

 aged, but all mining enterprises can be so entered upon 

 and conducted that the losses can be kept entirely 

 under control, and the risks very correctly estimated 

 before hand, unless in case of accidents or outside causes, 

 to which all other businesses are subject, and over which 

 no manager has any control. 



One of the great mistakes of the mining business lies 

 in taking for granted all the possibilities or probabilities 

 of the future development of the mines, and spending 



lOS 



