The Mount Morgan Mine.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 850, 15 June 1888, Page 9

The Mount Morgan Mine.

THE CHLORINATION GOLD EXTRACTING PROCESS. ' We take the following report of the celebrated Mount Morgan Mine in Queensland from the Australasian. It is particularly interesting in its description of the Chlorination process. of gold extraction which, it seems to us, is particularly applicable to the Thames field. A half column of the usual preliminary and well travelled remarks, and the writer continues : Our journey was completed without incident, except that at a particularly steep pinch kuown as the 4 Razor Back,’ the driver politely but firmly requested us to get out and walk, which we did, leaving the team to pull the empty trap up the ascent, which even now that a cutting has been made must try the mettle of the most lightlyloaded horses. It seems a singular state of things that the Mount Morgan Company, though they can no doubt afford it, should bo left by both the Government and the Divisional Board, as the country municipalities are called in Queensland, to make the road at their own expense to such a populous and thriving township as has sprung, up at Mount Morgan. A 3 the evening drew on our road wound round the base of a low range of hills, we crossed a creek or two, turned into a paddock, and reached our destination. 4 That, said Mr Callan, pointing to one of the hills before ns, 4 is the mount.’ I was rather surprised, for the hill indicated, which rose about 500 ft. from the oreek, had nothing to distinguish it from the fifty other peaks of the same range which lay tumbled about us in all directions. Tho far-famed mountain of gold was as common place-looking a hill as one would see in a day’s journey. I had expected that there would have been something about it to mark its unique place amongst the mountains of the world ; something in the appearance; the color, the size, tho shape; but there was nothing ; if it had been a hill containing a quarry of road metal, it could not have looked more insignificant. I gazed at it with a disappointment which I had not got over when we rattled through the little township, and up to the comfortable quarters occupied by the manager, where we were to pass the night. I do not know that I need say anything about the history of the mine. Everyone is familiar with that. Everyone know 3 how the freehold portion of the mine was taken up as a selection, and how the selector sold it to the Messrs Morgan, after whom the mount is named, thinking that he was selling a mountain of ironstone, which was " rather poor grazing country ; how the Morgans, after working the gold mine, which they discovered, and obtaining mining leases of some adjoining Crown lands, entered into partnership with some Rockhampton capitalists, who found the requisite funds for the erection of machinery ; how the Morgans sold out their interest for a very large sum, and how the other members of the partnershin formed a limited company of a inilli n £1 shares, which is at present working the mine. The fact that these shares are now readily saleable for £lO each is also patent to. all readers of the share list. And the trials and eventual triumph of the company, connected 'With some enterprising gentlemen who, not liking to see all the good things go to others, 4 jumped ’ the leasehold portion of the mine, and were, after extensive litigation, defeated before the Privy Council, are 1 so well known that I need not enlarge on any of those things, but confine myself to tho present condition of the mine and its prospects, as far as I had an opportunity of judging of these matters. We were warned that breakfast would bo punctual and early, so we got to bed betimes, But before we retired there was a pleasant little treat in store for us. It was Monday, and on that night the manager waa accustomed to call together a glee club. It was interesting to see the miners and blacksmiths who belonged to it trooping in with their music-books ; and delightful to sit on the verandah, smoking a mild cigarette, nutl listening to some of the good old glees that no new fangledness can put out of fashion, I glanced through the window at the little musical band within I could not help noticing how the divine harmony did away with social distinctions, and seemed to bring manager and men together ; and as I thought of the well-known scene in Dickens's novel, I felt irresistibly inclined to call out 4 Ana Kore.’ By the morning light I discovered that the surroundings of the mine and scattered township of some 4,000 inhabitants were much more pleasing and picturesque than is usual on goldfields. Dust there was of course, but only to a moderate extent, and the isolated houses and groups of dwellings scattered hero and there along the creek aide, on the edges of the hills, or some wooded ridge or spur, looked much better and must ■ be much more healthy than towns like Broken-bill or Silverton.' After an early breakfast Mr Lisle, the underground manager—if a man can be an underground manager whose principal work is on the surface —an old Bendigonian, took us in hand, and, in response to my request that he would begin at the beginning, led the way up the mount. A tramway, which is temporarily used for drawing tailings to be re-treated, took us up a part of the distance, and the manager led the way into a tunnel known as the Freehold tunnel, along which we proceeded some 700 ft, when we had (woe is me) to mount a perpendicular ladder of 160 ft. or so, which took ns into another tunnel, which, in a Y shape, reached theopen air in three directions (and glad enough I was to take a full, long breath of it after my climb). Up to this'point I may as well confess that I had been disappointed. I followed the manager with docility (even np the ladder confound him), and listened patiently to his talk atont soz stone and 6oz stone, and dykes, and hanging walls, &c And I gazed placidly at the various geological specimens that he pointed out to me, and heard in silence his modestly put forward, and by me not at all understood, theory of the origin of the peculiar formation of the mountain. But all that sort of thing I had been through before, and in any of the well-known Vic-

torian mines I could have seen similar shafts and tunnels or drives in plenty, it only beiug a question of the stone being richer than usual and the geological formation more puzzling, and when I found that the part I had traversed was no portion of the ground being worked, but was entirely separate from it, and that none of the 600 or 700 men employed by the company were working there, I took little further interest in the underground regions, aud asked to be taken to where some real work was being done. Accordingly we eraevged from the upper tunnel, and ascended to thtf top of the hill. Tnere I was satisfied that I had. before me a gold mine of no ordinary character. Gangs of men were employed quarrying down the top of the hill bodily. Tho quarry as opened had a face of CO yards or thereabouts and was worked in two trenches, each of them 33ft deep, and I am informed and believe, as the affidavits say, that every ton of this stuff would produce 6oz or thereabouts of gold. As the hill extended above the top of the quarry, and was at least chains across at tlmt point, increasing, of course, as it went downwards, any perron accustomed to weights and measures—which I am not—can give a guess as to the probable quantity of gold contained in that part of the working alone, I did not feel inclined to doubt the statement. What the entire upper workings are calculated to produce I would be afraid to say, but I know that a very shrewd politician and engineer, accustomed to make tho necessary calculations, who inspected the mine, estimated that the company might reckon upon having an ascertained and proved gold-bearing reef or lode in the upper part of the mine which would produce forty millions (£40,000,000) sterling, and what is more, he> went and backed his opinion by purchasing shares to the amount of £45,000, which is a pretty good proof of his tclief in the correctness of his calculations

For my own part I have, of course, no technical or special knowledge of mining matters, and as regards measurements and results of gold to the ton am Bimply repeating what I was told upon what seemed to me sufficient authority. But when I stood there on the top of that hill and watched the gangs of men quarrying down the whole of it as ;it came, rejecting only the grass and bushes, and knew that it was all to be passed through tho machines as auriferous, I felt that the Mount Morgan mine was worthy of its celebrity, and might well be styled one of the mining wonders of the world. Scattered about the top of the hill were some thousands of tons of dark looking stone, something like road metal. -I remarked that it must be rather in the way, but the mining manager smiled, as he picked up a lump, and, taking his microscope from his pocket, handed them to mo. I smiled too, as looking through the glass I could see the whole surface of the stone powdered with fine grains of gold. Luckily I had the presence of mind to put the specimen into my pocket instead of back into the heap, and kept it as a small memento of my visit. Perhaps it will be as well to condense here the information I subsequently obtained by questioning the manager and other responsible officers of the company. I first asked what does the stone average a ton. The answer was that the averages were different, but that the management endeavoured to obtain a return of about 7oz. as nearly as possible, by blending the various qualities of stone, and that wheie richer stone was put through the lots of gold was greater in propoition. I asked for some particulars of the averages, and was told that as an assay as high as 1,3000 z. had been obtained, aud that the drillings taken out of a lode for a blast a day or two ago, from a place shown to me, had produced 4430 zto the ton (I saw the assay return of this made in the ordinary course of business by Mr Trenear, the company’s assayer), and that a great deal of "the stone produced lOoz , and the poorest 2oz. 19dwt. I inquired what amount of gold per ton treated would pay, and I was told lOdwt. (half au ounce) would be sufficient. I next asked what the loss of gold was supposed to b6from the stone treated by the chlorinisation process, and I was told that if the tests which are constantly beiDg applied to the tailings, and the water, showed that more than about ldwt. 7gr was lost during the day, it was considered that something had gone wrong. My next question was, how much stuff was treated every day, and I was told that 80 toDS a day, or about 550 tons a week, was the average work with the present plant. I asked what it was expected could be treated when the additional plant being erected was completed, and I was told that it was calculated that 1,500 tons could be put through every week ; aDd to the question as to when the new works would be ready, I was told early in July. The manager further asked mo to note that up to the commencement of this year most of the stuff treated was ‘tailings,’ and even now of the 80 tons put through daily 20 tons were 4 tailings ’ which had boon operated on before, and only 60 tons virgin stone, which fact greatly reduced the average, of course, would rise when, as would shortly happen, the tailings would be exhausted. I asked what the expenses might be roughly said to he, and I was told that 30s a ton might be taken as the average. I then asked what returns might be calculated upon when the new works were in full operation, to which the manager replied that I could calculate that for myself, assuming that 1,500 tons of stone, averaging soz. at least, were put through every week. I finally inquired what returns could be obtained from the mine, to which he answered, 4 It is entirely a matter of the quantity of machinery employed.’

Mention was made above of 4 tailings being re treated, and perhaps I should explain the matter. The Mount Morgan gold is not only plentiful, but is singular for its purity and its fineness. In fact, it is so fine that the ordinary of treating gold are utterly inapplicable, and result in a groat loss. Originally the quartz was crushed in the old method, and the 4 tailings ’ resulting heaped up in tho usual fashion, and when the old system crushing was done away with and the chlorinisation, or, ns it is called for short, the chlorination process was adopted, the 4 tailings were tested, when it was found that about 2-Joz of gold could be extracted from each tow. and it was, of course,'determined to treat the tailings again, and this, as I have mentioned, is now being done, one-

fourth 4 tailing ’ being put through to threefourths virgin stone. It is obvious that when the 4 tailings ’ from the old stampers are all gone, as must shortly be the case, the stampers not being now used, the percentage of gold per ton treated will rise considerably. . I suppose the chlorination process, patented by Messrs Newbery and Yautin aud adapted to the mine by Mr Hall, is well known to those particularly interested in such matters, but as it may be strange to some readers I will shortly follow the gold from the quarry until it is melted into bars ready to be sent to the mint. When the stone -is quarried it drops into hoppers, by which it is conveyed to the suspension railroad, which carries it to the stone-breakers. This railroad is one of the cariosities of tho place, and I do not know that there is another in Australia. An endless wire rope hung high in air, being some SOft over the valley, .has a number of iron boxes fastened to it, and all day long it carries the full ones, holding about 2501 b. of stone, down to the c. ushers, and the empty ones back in endless procession, I was never tired of watching them. Tho effect was so curious of the gliding bodies botwixt earth aud sky, never hastening, but slowly and solemnly passing to and fro, 4 Solemn aud slow, up and down like priests in a row.’ Many a poor horse must be glad of the invention. Before its introduction to the mine, the labor on horse 3 carting down the hillside was very severe. The atone when it reaches the crushers is crushed and re-crushed until it will pass through an iron gauze, with 36 holes to the square inch, roasted in large furnaces, and then put in the chlorination barrels, which are revolving wooden casks, where it is chemically treated with chloride of lime, with the singular result that the 4 tailings,’ or crushed stone is left utterly devoid of gold, which latter is carried off iu a stream of water, which flows into a number of vats containing charcoal, which precipitates the gold. After the charcoal vats have been receiving the gold for about six weeks the f charcoal ceases to absorb. It is then taken out and burned, and the product—gold and ashes smelted m the usual way, and moulded into bars of a convenient size to be sent to the mint. The life of one of the chlorination barrels is about eight months, and it is carefully burned, and thus compelled to disgorge 30oz. or 40oz. of gold which it has absorbed. As I stood watching the water flowing into the charcoal vats, the manager dipped a glass phial into it and holding it up against the light, looked at it as a connoisseur views a glass of, Lafitte or other high-blass wine. 4 There,’ he said, 4 what do you think of that for golden syrup ?’ And as I gazed at the pale sherry-coloured liquor I agreed with him that the company had discovered the true Pactolus. A drop of chemical preparation was shaken into the glass, aud the liquid became perfectly black—the gold had begun to be precipitated—whilst, when the water running out of the vat (which, indeed,_ is used again and again) was tested in a similar manner, no change took place, showing that the water had been filtered of its gold. The number of barrels at present at work is, if I remember rightly, about _l4i The number in the new works, to which t was subsequently taken, which are still in the hands of the workman, and which are the same as the present ones,’ only larger and more perfect, is something over twenty ; but as the manager has profited by his experience, and all tho machinery and arrangements are much more complete, the new works will, it is calculated, treat twice the quantity of stone now treated ; or, in .conjunction with the present works, three times the quantity in all. I may mention that the company in the pa3t has had to lose a great deal of time from the chloride of lime, which has to be imported from England, becoming ceteriorated ; but now it is properly packed in lead cases, impervious to all weather. Everything else required by the company, except, of course, engines, iron castings, and such things, i 3 manufactured on the spot, and in July” next Mr Hall will have cause to be proud of his plant and appliances. There is only one Mount Morgan. A Melbourne man who went up the Mount last summer, said, as he wiped his streaming brow, and looked around on the summit, 1 By if we had this in Victoria, every hill for fifty miles round would have been pegged out, and companies floated long ago.’ I am sure that he is right ; but in Queensland they take things easier. I understand that there are three or four claims at work immediately around Mount Morgan, but as far as I could learn, no defined lode or reef, or payable gold in any shape, had been discovered. If any such discoveries are made, I hope that I shall know iu time ; I would like to have some shares. Meanwhile my visit ha 3 satisfied me as to the character of Mount Morgan, and I came away pleaßed and interested with a very pleasant trip.