Colonel Farish's opinion verified our fondest expectations. The report
set forth that the mine possibilities of Ely Central were nearly as
great as those of the Nevada Consolidated itself. On the basis of this
report, which was made in September, the project acquired a new
significance. Development operations were undertaken to prove up the
ground in an endeavor to demonstrate the existence of the 33,000,000
tons of commercial porphyry ore which Colonel Farish indicated in his
report would likely be found within the boundaries of the southern part
of the Ely Central property.
The prospect fairly took the Scheftels organization off its feet. We
were dazzled. We saw ourselves at the head of a mine worth $25,000,000
to $40,000,000. No time was lost in organizing a campaign to finance
the whole deal. Having no syndicated multi-millionaires to back it up,
the Scheftels corporation went to the public for the money, the same as
hundreds of other notable and successful promoters had done. The
ensuing publicity campaign to raise capital has been described in
hundreds of columns of newspaper space as one of the most spectacular
ever attempted in Wall Street.
I had absolute faith in the great merits of Ely Central, a faith that
has not been dimmed in the slightest degree by the vicissitudes through
which the company, the Scheftels corporation, and myself personally
have passed. Within thirteen months the Scheftels corporation caused to
be spent for mine development more than $150,000, and on mine and
company administration an additional $75,000. When the Scheftels
company was raided by the Government on September 29, 1910, and a stop
put to further work the expenses at the mine had averaged for the nine
months of that year above $15,000 a month. Work was going on night and
day. Every possible effort was being made to prove-up the property in
short order. Core-drills sent down from the surface had already
revealed the presence of ore at depth, and I am sublimely certain that
another month or two would have put the underground air-drills into
contact with a vast ore-body identical in quality and value with that
lying on either side in Nevada Consolidated acreage.
Ely Central was the New York Curb sensation in 1909-1910. I used the
publicity forces which had been so successful in protecting the public
against the rapacity of multi-millionaire mining-wolves to educate them
up to the speculative possibilities of Ely Central.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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