SEPARATION OF GOLD FROM QUARTZ.

New Zealand Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1841, 8 December 1869, Page 3

SEPARATION OF GOLD FROM QUARTZ.

A short time ago we extracted from the Ballarat Courier a portion of a lecture delivered by Mr. TV. Shires, iu which he referred to the use of caustic soda in the separation of gold from quariz, Mr. Shires being for many years assayer to the Sandhurst branch of the Bank of New South Wales. A writer in the Times of yesterday, referring to those remarks, says : — Tho New Zealand Herald of October 29 hiiß tho abovo extract, taken from the Ballarat Courier of October 5, und tho thanks of the mining community ara due to that paper for J inserting this valuable information. The attention of certain gentlomen interested in mining matters here at the Thames was arrestee? by reading this article, and a lew experiments were trieil, under difficulties ut first, one of which was that the caustic soda bad io bo muuui'actured on tlio spot, which completely corroborated the statements inudo by Mr. Shirca, <".ml it is strongly recommended to machine owners to give it a triul. Our own experiment was in a small berdan, and tho ellcct was really magical ii cases whore mundic was almost the larger part of the stono, and where, ;on previous occasions, it had been almost impossible to amalgamate the tfold. On adding the .soJut'on of caustic soda, the amalgamation of the free gold w is ulfectod at once. Its good effect wp.s especially s'-en at tho cleaning up, when, instead of tho pan containing a ''onsidorablo quantify or a dropsy mixture of mundic an;: silver, it was found to bo quite smooth and clear, and little difficulty was met with in washing off tho remaining looga mundic and Eand. Our modus operandi was simply to havo a largo tank containing sufficient water for the time tthat tho bordan was in use, containing the soda in solution, and communicated witE the berdan by means of a pipe and stopcock. In a battery of course some other means would have to be made use of, and we should think it would bo a matter of small difficulty to have a somewhat similar arrangement. For instance, tho solution of caustic soda might be contained in a tank to itself, independent of the water supply, and might be supplied by means of a pipe and tap communicating with tho water trough in front of tho | stamper box, tho amount of solution required would thus bo completely at the command of I tho ami'igamator.