Relations between Government Surveys and the Mining Industry - Value of the Geological Surveys

The important place in the economic life of the country that is occupied by the United States Geological Survey and the various state surveys is appreciatcd by most members of our Institute. To the public at large, the functions of these surveys are no doubt largely unknown, and taken for granted. Possibly a realization of the value of the work of these government branches is brought home most fully to that group of our members whose duties as examining engineers and mining geologists take them to mines and prospects in many different parts. The examining engineer or geologist is usually seeking for a judgment on the value of an enterprise from the standpoint of the useful minerals that may or may not be present; he must also attempt some prediction as to future market prices. On his opinion rests the determination of the expenditure of money, which rendered into other language means the expenditure of human effort. An opinion on an exploring venture or the reasoning out of the probable extensions of an orebody requires among many other things a background of knowledge covering the geologic horizons not only of an immediate area but of the surrounding area, a knowledge of the structural geology and of the causes that have operated to form the ores as they are. The great storehouses of this knowledge are the statistics, reports and maps issued by the various geological surveys. They supply the groundwork for additional observations. To these, reference is always made when going into a new district. The technique of work in the field and laboratory, and to some extent the hypotheses that underlie our methods of approach, have been formed by men such as Van Hise, Leith, Kemp, Spurr, Emmons and Lindgren, who developed their powers in the service of the geological surveys. In addition to whatever originality of thought, or power to observe facts and analyze them, may be our portion, we require, in the application of the arts and sciences, a knowledge of what has already been done. We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before, and the extent of our vision often depends upon the thoroughness with which we form earlier work into one whole and make use of it.