RECENT. DISCOVERIES IN SOUTH AFRICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11195, 16 October 1899, Page 3

RECENT. DISCOVERIES IN SOUTH AFRICA.

GOLD IN COAL. Mr. F. B. Stephens, of the Otago School of Mines, writing with reference to the recently reported discovery of gold in South Africa, says:—"The report is quite correct. I happened to be assayer for the Buft'elsdorm Estates and Gold Mining Company, Klerksdrop (South Africa), when the discovery was made. The ore mined was quartzite, and occasionally showed patches of banket. Running through the quartzite in many places were small seams of coal of the nature of autkracite. Some of this coal assayed as high as 800oz of gold to the ton. The gold was exceedingly fine, and was not apparent at a casual glance, but on close examination it' could be seen very thickly peppered through the coal. The ash of this coal was coloured bright purple from the amount of gold it contained. One small seam that was found lying flat against an intrusive mass of diabase looked like honeycomb, the gold taking the place of the honey. Strange to say, it was only where the quartzite was cut through by the dyke that the coal contained any gold ; in other parts of the mine the coal was quite barren. The coal contained iron pyrites, and without doubt the pyrites in contact with the coal deposited the gold from solutions which had found their way up the dyke fissure, the gold having most likely been dissolved out of underlying auriferous strata." GREAT BARRIER GOLD AND SLIVER COMPANY. TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Being a shareholder in the above company I have taken much interest in the correspondence and report published re the result of Mr. Campbell's treatment of 40 tons of the company's ore by the thermohyperphoric process. The point of contention is this : Is Mr. Campbell's process a success in repect of the treatment of the Great Barrier ore'! Mr. Campbell says : " Yes, it is. I will guarantee 95 per cent, I extraction 50 per cent, cheaper than any other process that can be shown to extract a similar percentage from an equal quantity of ore." The directors of the company, in effect, say, " No ! your system of treatment lias proved a failure, and by your own showing. You lauded your process, asked us to let you have 40 tons of ore at the mine, which we did ; you treated it, sent us your report, and from ore which you admit ill bulk assayed £5 2s 2d, you actually extracted bullion to half that value only, and you are full of excuses to account for your failure." Now, the rev. gentleman is of course anxious to support his theoretical system of economically, and efficiently extracting bullion from refractory ores, and has written and spoken time aftei time in support of the thermo-hyperphoric treatment, but after, as lie says, "two years' hard and I may add unsympathetic work among our re tract New Zealand ores," and after , a very large expenditure of money, the won! ] " failure " describes so far the result of his system of treatment. Mining men in such matters go by results, and where a return of £93 is obtained from ore assaying in bulk as worth £184 Bs, there can be no doubt the process has proved a failure. Mr. Campbell's report is full of excuses, and most unsatisfactory. He enlarges theoretically upon what he can do. but in practice fails entirely in producing favourable results. How the directors were influenced to give away 40 tons of ore worth even £5 2s 2d I per ton, is unaccountable, and to find that! Mr. Campbell had been so unsuccessful in bis treatment, must have been most disheartening, but to find the reverend gentleman still emphatically asserting he can guarantee a 95 per cent, extraction at 50 per cent, cheaper than any other process is more unaccountable still, and shows clearly that the reverend gentleman is convinced that theoretically he is right, while in practice his system of extraction is undoubtedly a failure. I should advise the directors of the Great Barrier Company to exercise a greater discretion in having tests of their ore made and to steer clear of theorists and unsuccessful systems. I was pleased to observe that the directors were not unanimous in presenting the 40 tons of ore to Mr. Campbell.—l am, etc., Shareholder. I