THE SOUTH AFRICAN RAND GOLDFIELD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9831, 28 May 1895, Page 6

THE SOUTH AFRICAN RAND GOLDFIELD.

SOME INTERESTING PARTICULARS. Fkom recent South African files we gather that the total quantity of ore treated on the Rand goldfield during 1894 was 2,827,365 tons (20001bs each), which yielded 2,024,163 ounces of gold bullion, worth £(3,963,100, from 50 producing mines. The dividends declared for the year amounted to £1,540,394, being 20 per cent, of the output.

The actual extraction amounted to 16dwts or £2 15* per English ton, but omitting the rich returns from the Robinson, Nigol, Worcester, and a few other mines, the average yield does not exceed £1 10s per ton. From the Rand mines, since their commencement in 1887 to December 31st, 1894, 10,110,000 tons of ore have been treated for 6.544 584 ounces of gold bullion, valued at £22,600,000, and of this largo amount no less than £6,963,000 were won during last year's operations. Since 1887 almost £4,500,000 have boon paid in dividends on this field.

These figures afford an object lesson for all, bub especially for the Hauraki goldfields. The average rate of wages of the natives—over 40,000 being employed—is given at £2 183 9d per month, or a trifle over 14s 9d per week, exclusive of food. White men are employed at very good wages, but only in positions where skill and experience are required, the total number being 5363, who receive in wages and expenses £1,396,959 per annum. The Transvaal now occupies the third place among the gold producers of the world, and bids fair in a few years to take the load, and all this has been achieved in little more than seven years by British pluck, backed by the expenditure of a vast amount of capital. The Rand goldfield is situated in a remote part of South Africa, where the erection of mining machinery is always attended with great cost, and all supplies are high, and besides a scarcity of water for milling, all the stamping, pumping, and winding has to bo effected with coal, which, although abundant in the neighbourhood, is by no means cheap. With all these disabilities, ore yielding 16dwt per ton pays the handsome amount of £1,540,394 in dividends clear of all expenses as the result of last year's operations. There are, however, many facilities and advantages which the Hauraki goldfieldc offer. These latter are accessible in all places, with water carriage almost to the mines, cheap labour and management, cheap supplies, and with—most important of allin many places an abundant and never" failing supply of water for motive power. \ At the Rand, from banket" reefs averaging from five to six feet and worked down to a depth of 1000 feet, the cost of winning and treatment of the ore, including all charges, averages about £2 per ton, but it could be safely asserted that the cost here would nob be much more than a quarter of that amount. In January of this year the number of stamps at work on the Rand was 2250, and the duty of each stamp was 3.55 English tons per day. There is no doubt the large low grade lodes of the Thames, with the expenditure of capital, judicious management, and efficient treatment, could also be worked with payable results, but operations would have to be conducted on a large scale to turn them into a commercial success.