Again, in the development of a mine after it is located and
proved in part, there is more unavoidable economic waste. The
rock is blank and silent. It can only be explored by means of
expensive drifts and drillings. In one mine at Bisbee, Arizona, a
shaft was sunk which had drifts at the 600-and 900-feet levels,
all without result. Later on they found a blanket of copper
between those two levels, from which six million dollars were
taken. Even in old established mines there is something of a
chance, and there are often unwittingly false standards of
values. Which is no argument for making all gamble that which
originally was part gamble.

Any mine, no matter how rich, or how large, begins to be
exhausted from the time the first pick is stuck into the ground
and all its profits ought to be figured on the basis of
diminishing deposits. When your deposit is drawn out, your bank
does not honor your check. A mine is the reverse of a mortgage or
a bond. The security does not remain stable nor increase in
value, but, on the contrary, CONTINUALLY DECREASES in value. In a
mortgage, six per cent. is wisdom; in a mining return, it is
folly. A mine, instead of being figured on the basis of a
mortgage, ought to be figured on the basis of a term annuity.
That is to say, on the basis of a wiping out date. When the mine
is done paying dividends, there is no return of the face of the
principal invested. Yet the great and gullible public forgets
this all-important fact, which differentiates mining from every
other form of business.


CRACKER-BOX INVESTORS