A MODERN GOLD-SAVING PLANT.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXXIX, Issue 6986, 11 February 1891, Page 2

A MODERN GOLD-SAVING PLANT.

(WELLINGTON POST ) • The largest and most modern gold-say- j ing plant now in the colony Is one lately ' erected in an out-of-the-way corner of the ; Ohinemuri (Upper Thames) goldfield, ' known as Waihl, within a few miles of Tauranga. As, however, it is owned by an English company, very little has yet been made known about it in colonial papers. An interesting description of the works has been Bent by a recent visitor to a Wellington resident, to whom we are indebted for the particulars here given. The company ia working upon a mammoth ' reef 75ffc in width, composed of low but regular grade quartz, but payable when economically treated. The ore is trucked from the mine to kilns, and there burnt < with wood fuel. On cooling down the 1 calcined material is trucked away to the < battery, and pub through a Btone ; breaker, 1 from which it falls into hoppers, and is 1 fed into the stamper boxes by mr « genious automatic gear, one man ' being able to attend to as many - as thirty head of stampers. In s the crushing process, the stuff must be > reduced to an almost impalpable dust, for it is made to pass theough gratings with 3600 perforations to the square inch, and - gratings of the extraordinary fineness of " 6400 to the ihoh have at times been used. . On being brought to this condition, the stuff Is caught up by a spiral contrivance on the endlesi lotcir principle, and eltvt*

ted to another large hopper. Thence It Is conveyed to amalgamating pans, where it is brought into contact with quicksilver and chemicals, and steam is also turned on. Each separate " charge" of the pan Is allowed to remain iv a boiling hot state from four to five hours, and iB then run off into a " settler," the amalgam of gold and quicksilver being first removed by siphons Into specially made bags: After being squeezed and retorted (to extract the superfluous mercury); the bullion is smelted., into . igots of .about 1000. ..ounces, sealed up in boxes and shipped away to London. All the plant is driven by water power, by means of three Pelton wheels—one of which, it will be remembered, was on view at the Wellington .Exhibition— but v^^&jful steam engines also being erecl&#% provided against summer droughts. Expeiti estimate that the works will shortly turn out bullion to the value of LIOO.OOO a year, for the yield does not depend so much upon the discovery of sensational rufiß of gold as upon the careful and systematic treatment of a large lode. Shares in the company were purchasable a few months ago at iabont 4s, but could not now be obtained for five times that sum. Ah Auckland ' contemporary recently stated that the company makes a clear profit of 25a [from every ton of ore treated. . 7 : : :..'■".; Well-founded rumors are in circulation that serious defalcations have occurred in connection "with the : Queensland Police Department. The authorities admit there is something wrong, but refuse definite information.' ' . " : ■ (See \ fourft fagt.)