The Mount Morgan Mine.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 907, 19 July 1889, Page 8

The Mount Morgan Mine.

A GOLD QUARRY. The special reporter to the Melbourne Leader gives the following graphic description of the wonderful Queensland goldmine : —-It is literally a quarry of gold, which puzzles the geglogists to. say how it got there ; and, although surrounded by similar mountains in appearance, outside of this particular peak in the range not the colour of the precious metal has hitherto rewarded the eager search of hosts of eager prospectors, who are busily at work in the hope of floating Mount Morgan Extendeds, Mount Morgan Pups, Mount Morgans South South, East, West and North ; while probably we shall hear, by and by, of British Mount Morgans, as an English Peer, recently a visitor to these colonies, is engaged in forming a company in London to purchase all the surrounding leases, preparatory to entering upon elaborate and deep prospecting operations. The mount forms part of a, range which rises from a narrow valley, having m creek running along its bed to a point lower down, where it joins a considerable stream called the River Dee., The mount is 1200 feet above the level of the sea and .500 above the creek in the valley along which is the township of Mount Morgan, containing 6000 inhabitants. This township with its tents, houses, stores, and hotels, haß all the surroundings of a large mining rush in the early days of Victorian miuing, and it is difficult at first to realise that: it has to do only with one miue. Extended up the first slope at the foot of the mount begin the company’s works, comprising several acres of long chim-ney-topped buildings, whose roofs are covered with fine ohocoiate coloured dust

arising from the powered oro floating everywhere in the vicinity of the works, from which an overwhelming din of scores of Btono crushing machines and ore grinding mills unceasingly issues. From the works an aerial wire rope communicates with the top of the mount, and in this economical way the ore is brought down; The full hutches pulling the empty ones back. Climbing to the top of the hill we find the men have cut a shelf or terrace in the side of the hill near the summit, tkoface of which is 35 feet, and the floor on to which the ore is being blasted, from the face about 9 acres in area. Seven men in the face do all the breaking down required, but on the floor of the quarry over 60 men are engaged with hammers'in breaking the lumps of stone into spawls, filling the hutches and sending them down to the works. The loose stones examined among the grass on the top of the hill round the edges of the quarry are simply brown pieceß ot ironstone to look at, and the ordinary miner, used to the conventional gold indications, would never suspect them of being auriferous, and yet we are assured by Mr Wesley Hall, who has become experienced in the gold yielding capacity of the various samples of stone by their appearance, that this is ore, that 40z., this 6oz\ that 120 z., this piece will go 300 z., another lOOoz,, and one piece was shown to us a part of which had assayed up to 4500 z., to the ton. A peculiarity of the ore is that no matter how rich it may be you cannot see the gold in it. The theory of Mr Jack, the Queensland geologist, is that the gold in Mount Morgan was upheaval from a deep underground bed of pyrites by means of a thermal spring, the fineness of the gold as now found in the ironstone being the result of the action of the hot geyser which brought it to the surface.

The process by which the gold is befng extracted at Rfonat Morgan is most effective, but so tedious and expensive that it could not pay but for the exceptional richness of the ore. As the hutches, full of spawls, come down from the quarry on the mount, the ore irf'fed into an army of stone crushing machines, which reduce it to pieces of about one inch in diameter. These are then spread on drying kilns to prepare the ore for the rolling mills. In addition to the iron the orealsocontains a portion of sulphides, which, without drying, produces pasting in the rolls. The rolls get the ore down very fine, when it is past in charges of one ton each into roasting furnaoes, where it remains three hours for the purpose of ridding ic of the waters of crystallisation. The charges are then drawn into the cooling floors, and thence fed into the chlorination barrels at the rate of 16cwt. to each barrel, together with 70 gallons of water, from to 2 per cent, of chloride of lime, and about the same of sulphuric acid. These barrels are made to revolve between two or three hours at the rate of eight revolutions per minute, during which the cholide of lime and the acid generate clorine gas, and in turn impregnates every particle of the charge and dissolves the gold. The barrels are then discharged into the leaching vats underneath, which hold from two to three tons of this pulp each, and into these vats water is poured and allowed to drain off into a series of charcoal filters until by chemical test the water shows no signs of gold. Charcoal has such an affinity for chlorine, which has now combined with the gold, that it is taken up in the filters, and the charcoal charged with the gold is roasted in a reverberatory furnace until nothing is left but a grey coloured ash. This goldcharged ash is mixed with fused borax, smelted and run into ingots of from 250 to 300 oz. each. It will be easily understood from this outline of the chlorine process that it takes a Mount Morgan mine to make it pay. Mr Wesley Hall informed me that one great, difficulty he bad was in the grading of his ore, as anything beyond 5 oz. to the ton could n ot be worked in the chlorine barrels. He had therefore to arrange by mixing his 14 or 2oz. stuff with the richer ores running up to 300 z., so as to keep the charges in the barrels as closely as possible to soz. per ton. At this rate the mine is just now turning out £128,000 per month. Of this £28,000 per month go in working expenses/ and the balance of £IOO,OOO pays a dividend of 2s. per month per Bhare, there being 1,000,000 shares in the company. The com-

pany originally started with a capital of £1,000,000, and the shares at their present value of £9 thus represents the m<Ub as being value for £9,000,000 sterling. Some time ago a Mount Morgan boom set in, when the shares went up to £l7, and as easy terms were given and some of the banks advance! to the extent of £lO a large business was done. Kow that the price has gone back to £9 there has set in bad times for many, especially iu Rockhampton. Mr Wesley Hall is urged to increase the output and so increase the monthly dividends, but he says he has got to the end of his tether. He is prepared to get out £IOO,OOO a month clear, but says he cannot do more. With respect to the future of the mine, a shaft has been sunk down the centre of the Mount for 300 feet, and tested by tunnels run into the shaft at the bottom and at internals on the way to the top. It is aunouneed that an area of 9 acres round this 300 feet shaft is as rich as the quarry now being worked at the top, but the buyers at £l7 still growl, and ask what good this is to them if they cannot get more than 2s. a moathon their shares. However, the majority of the shares are in the hands of r ,a few of the early holders, and 2s. a month gives them incomes almost beyond the dream of avarice. One gentleman was pointed out to me iu Brisbane who draws £400,000 a year, and a member of the Queensland Government, who modestly described himself to me as one of the smallest of the big holders, confessed to receiving * only ’ £12,400 a month. A million shares enabled the early promoters to divide among themselves scrip-by the 100,000, and probably the buyers at £l7 did not carefully enough consider what a million shares mean, and what a quantity of gold it requires to find its way round such a list in the shape of dividends.