SCHEELITE AND ITS USES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 79, 15 November 1911, Page 2

SCHEELITE AND ITS USES.

KlvO.M CHXTIIAH OTACO TO Kill' i’P’S. Meheclite is not the name of a new religion; neither is it a dire-all mixture is.i,.s t-uo Wellington Post.) it is a mineral which (like wolfram) contains the element tungsten, which, in alloy form, is in commercial use for hardening steel. Tungstic acid is a little known commodity. Nevertheless the present day demand exceeds the supply. Mighty manufacturing firms, like Krupp’s and Hiram Maxim’s who work steel for profit (and for peace, it is said), can absorb a lot of scheelito, and, though this man and Hie next may not ho aware of it, fpiite

a quantity of the mineral goes to ) I'urope from Central Otago, near Hyde. On the Continent Central Otago competes with Spain and Portugal, ! and a mining engineer, who knows where of ho Speaks, averred to a representative of the “Post” today that the deposits in the South island avp. almost, opul.ent. And as sehcoiitfc is of almost life same specific gravity as gold, it is!worth, say, £ll2 per ton, or, to he quite technical, 32s Gil per unit—Bo per cent of tungstic acid per ton, that may bo—and, further, as, at certain depths, gold accompanies this valuable mineral, it will 1)0 seen that a healthy deep reef that contains sclieolito is of considerable worth. The local storekeeper will not exchange a hag of sugar for a bag of ore, but the local hanks and large business houses will always purchase, and then export. One mineowner sends'a lot of the mineral to Australia, where it is kept in store until cabled advice from Homo notiflos a favourable opportunity to sell,

and . tji’o • deal is ( aVjraiiged per tclcgHipT , ; T . ' i! y . „

j Schoclito has heoii worked in Central Otago for the past 21 years by private enterprise.! The lode being worked is in what is said to he the longest line of reef in New Zealand, twenty-five miles in length. As the reef sink's, the quartz carries schoclite and gold—the latter in the iron pyrites. That the yellow metal could live in proximity to scheolite was not believed in past years. Mine-managers were looking for scheolite, not gold. But the owner forwarded two parcels of ore to Ballarat to he treated. The sample, some II per cent., yielded scheolite to the value, of £77, while the pyrites yielded over live ounces of gold, which was assessed at the high

rata of £4 2s per ounce. Old tailings, heretofore despised, acquired a new value, and over one thousand tons of the discarded rubble contains gold, on an average estimate, to the net value of something like £BOO. In the extraction of the gold, the sulphides are eliminated by roasting the concentrates, when the sulphides are drawn off, leaving a residue, oxide of earth. Then the whole is put through a Huntington mill and crushed into a finer, mesh than in the battery. Plants thiit. will work to this purpose arc now projected or in course of erection.

Complaint is made that the existing mining laws are somewhat of a hindrance, as no mine is allowed to work over siv.nicn—the law will allow six—without a manager, under pain of a penalty not exceeding £SO per clay. Capable, managers for this work, it was so put to tlio “Post” representative, ary extremely hard to procure', and it has meant before this that an owner has had to throw out, say, sixty hands-owing to the sudden loss of a manager. Where so many were employed!’six would bed Useless.