THE GREAT TRHNSVAAL GOLDFIELD.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XXVI, Issue 7960, 31 October 1894, Page 3

THE GREAT TRHNSVAAL GOLDFIELD.

An Australiau.now visiting South Africa, sends us (Australasian) some notes fou the Great Witwatersrand gold field, usually spoken of as " The Rand," or Johannesburg. His letter is dated from Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal Kepublic. It is connected by rail with East London, Port. Rlizabetli, and Capetown, and railway liu r s are to connect with Delagoa Bay and Dtirban. Delagoa Bay. the nearest seaport, is about 400 miles by rail from Johannesburg. Johannesburg is 5200 feet abore sea lev), and the white population is about. 45,000. The climate is very good and healthy. Rains fall in the summer, and vegetation is dry in winter, The country is very void of trees, but the inhabitants have planted eucalyptus very.extensively, and it seems to grow faster than in Australia. Some, plantations have about 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 trees, and one fancies himself in Australia.

Gold was discovered in 1885. The whole place could have been bought in 1886 for £10,000; now I doubt if £50,000,000 would buy it.

From a few hundred ounces in 1886 the output has risen to 2,000,0000z a year. For June it was 168,1620z. . There is plenty of water and abundant coal, and a good supply of first-rate black labour. The natives who work will earn about £3 per month.

The most modern machinery is used, and some of the leading mining engineers of tho world reside here. A great number of American engineers and managers'are employed, some drawing from £5000 to £10,000 a year. It is greatly owing to'he energy and ability of these men that the fields have been such r success, as theia whole aim seems to be to.prndiif" gold at as small a cost as possib 1 •. With this object they are always rendv to try anything new.

■Some of the mines are worked on a gigantic scale and the ore treated very cheaply One nyipe treats its ore at 12s 9d per ton; this includes everything. The ore is of a very low g' ade, but the reef being wide, a profit, of about £100,000 a year is made. Another mine which hns a smaller reef makes £200,000 a year, although the ore costs 30s a ton to treat, including everything.

With the assistance of nature and capitalists, Johannesburg hts done more to improve gold mining in eight years than Australia has done in 50. And it is not. because they have rich mines, for their mines only average about lOdwt. to the ton. It is by working on a large scale with the most modern machinery, together with good management.

Where we, in Australia, play with £10,000 capital, here they would start with £200,000, open the mine up properly, and in two years do as much as we would do in 20.

With all the cry aeainst Chinese, I think it would be a eood thing to import cheap labour to work low-grade mines in Australia.

In tho report made by Mr Hamilton Smith. American mining engineer for the Messrs Rothschild, the main reof at the Eand is stated to be 11 miles long, its probable thickness throughout five feet, and with an inclined depth going down to 5200 feot. At an average of 12idwt per ton tho gross yield should bo £215,000,000, or not much short of tho total output of California from 1849 1,0 1892 (230 millions). An annual output is exnoctcd in the course of a few years of £10,000,000, increasing the annual yield of the world from £19,000,000 (1883) to £30,000,000 in 1896—a result which should do awav with the lamentations of the bi-motallists regarding the scarcity of gold.