REJECTED MINERAL MATTER.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1168, 5 August 1885, Page 3

REJECTED MINERAL MATTER.

Eecently (says the Auckland " Herald") Mr B. K. Davis obtained a sample of some minerals from one of our mines in the Upper Thames district, which had been cast aside as comparatively worthless, and submitted it to Mr Gralbraith, analytical chemist, for examination. Mr Davis assured Mr Galbraith that it appeared to be a fair sample of at least a thousand tons of similar stuff that was cast aside. On analysis Mr Galbraith found the sample given him contained at the rate of 775 ounces of silver and 3 ounces of gold to the ton of ore. The Sunnyside Silver Mining Company of New South Wales, where LaMonte's Water Jacket smelting furnace is used, get for the silver 5s per ounce in the London market. On the assumption that the silver from the Upper Thames, now neglected, were worth the same amount of money, the stone which Mr Davis supplied to Mr Galbraith would be worth at the Irate of £193 15s per ton for the silver it contained, while the three ounces of pure gold would add probably another £15 to the above amount, or, in all, £205 15s per ton. These are large figures, and the sample given for analysis is a fair average of the quality of the thousand or more tons of rejected mineral matter there is wealth upwards of £205,000, lying in that heap unutilised. With a careful and honest system of working, and the adoption of a method suitable for the class of base minerals in connection with the gold, the most of the silver and gold contained in the stone should be recovered and put into circulation. If the LaMonte system of smelting realises the expectations at present entertained of it, a great future is in store for the goldfields in this portion of the colony.

" A man's a man for a' that," and why— i^he becomes possessed of the necessary adjuncts to nobility in the bhape of wealth, and a desire to stand above men— should he not purchase his way to the summit of ambition. The following advertisement from the " Morning Post " may be of interest to the "upper ten" of tie colonies :— " Title of nobility, 1 about 470 years old, for sale, chea >. Addrr e i3 A. 1203, care of Messrs Haasenstein and Voglev, advertising agents, Fankfort-on-