Excerpt from Practical Mining: A Field Manual for Mining Engineers; With Hints to Investors in Mining Properties The percentage which is realized from an investment is governed to some extent by the nature of the security. If it is such as is not liable to much fluctuation, it is sought for permanent investment, even at a low rate of interest. Generally we may say: The profit to be expected from any investment should be commensurate with the risk taken. People who are glad to realize 5 per cent on real estate will expect to realize 25 to 30 per cent, and often more than this amount, on a mining venture, as it is called; and it must be admitted that it is not too much for a purchaser of min ing-stock to expect under existing condi tions: but the intelligent operator, not in mining stock but in mines, will be satisfied with less. Naturally, a mining investment should be expected to pay a much higher rate of interest than real estate or railway securities, because it is less permanent. The chief cause of the uncertainty in min ing ventures, however, is the fact that the most of those offered to the public are not expected to be productive for any length of time, if at all. To get an accu rate idea of the mining industry would require severe study and time, so that the majority of operators prefer to pay for obtaining the necessary knowledge, and success or failure is chiefly due to the value of this purchase. The following pages are written at the request of friends, with the purpose of pointing out as briefly as possible the nature of the knowledge to be sought, and by exposing some of the sources, to limit the frequency of error. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.