You make some excellent points. It was probably a much better move to not bring in the machinery until he needed it. And he could have left his workers to mine the gold there while he went in search of more.

Still, they stopped three feet from gold after they went to the trouble of bringing the machinery to them. That has to hurt. Although they did go on to be successful.
.-= Jazz Salinger´s last blog ..Sean Rasmussen – Aussie Internet Marketer Making a Difference =-.

We don’t know how much the uncle knows about mining ore when he started out.

It would have been wise for him to have consulted someone who knew about ore and geology in those regions before he went home. In other words, he didn’t do his homework and made an assumption that he had hit a vast quantity.

Sometimes we need to get expert advice and not take a guess before proceeding.

‘Don’t give up though the pace seems slow
You may succeed with another blow …
And you can never tell how close you are
It may be near when it seems so far
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit
It’s when things seem worse that YOU MUST NOT QUIT.