NOTES ON A TRIP TO VICTORIA.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 23 February 1881, Page 2

NOTES ON A TRIP TO VICTORIA.

No. XII. '" BiLLAHAT QUABTZ MlfflKG, The Band of Hope Company, or as it is now best known, the Band and Albion Consols Company, is one of the biggest, if indeed not the very biggest gold mm» ing Venture in "the southern hemjspjbere. Tbe history of tbe company is an instructive one, and as illustrating the mttgnin tude of its operations, is worth repeating. So far back it the year 1856 a company was organised, called the Albion Company, Frenchman's Lead, Sebastppol. It was formed to prospect for deep ground and was tbe first company in Victoria to apply boring for thai purpose. In 1858, the' bore had proved the existence of payable ground, and on tbe 4th of June in that year a abaft was commenced, and carried to a depth of 475 ft. By the year 1668, tbe company obtained gold to the value of a quarter of a million. nnd disbursed £90,921 in dividends, the calls made up to that date amounting to 45117,995! The Batid 6f Hope Coin', pany commenced winking on tbe Golden Point lead in 1858, and owing to the difficulties met with it took five years to sink the No. 1. shaft. 340 feet. Up to 1866, the company bad expended £29, 565 on the No. 1 shaft, and £101,955 on alterations in and driving from the No. 2 shaft. The No. 3 shaft cost £11,859 in sinking, and the No. 4 shaft about an equal sum ; No. 5 shaft, £2000, besides which £3000 was expended in boring operations. Two and a*half millions of cubic feet of washdirt bad been taken out, which yielded 161,9430zs of gold of tbe money value of £656,869, of which £388,000 was declared in divi. dends. In 1866, Ibis company* united with tbe Hand-in««Hand Company in order to work heavy ground lying within each leasehold. As a result of tbe union the heaviest machinery : obtainable was procured, the mine was lighted with gas, and operations were initiated upon the grandest scale known up to that time — 700 tons of trash dirt were raised daily, and as conch as 16310z9. of gold obtained in the eight hours. In 186 a, the corns pariy started a t bird shaft south of the Smytfiesdale road, and in the tpffowing 1 year another shaft was started in the .;" t . » .1-. ■; .'.. •-..*

centre of the Sedan Eace-course. On the 7th March, 1869. the United Handio»Hand and Band of Hope Company united with the Albion Company, forming the incorporated Band of Hope and Albion Consols Company—capital, £449. 000, in 22,450 shares, ot £20 paid-up. The area then held by the united Companies was 400 acres, and the plant included 11 engines, 14 boiler?, and 16 puddling machines, nineteen horses, and 900 men were employed by the eompanv, and the monthly expenditure was £10, 600, the plant being: valued at £20,000. Up to November, 1869, the amalgamated companies had produced gold to the value of £438,000, of which £170,620 had been paid in dividends. These figures were of course largely added to in more recent years, the gross produo tion of gold to date reaching to nearly three millions sterling, and the dividends paid to one million. This is shortly tne history of the company as regards its Alluvial operations, and just at the point where its alluvial history ends its quartz mining history begins. It will be understood that the incorporated company started out purely as an alluvial enter* prise, and after enjoying & twenty years' wwiuwfHM ijii^' f plfrio.my ipnfc L ing colossal fortunes for irr its original shareholders, just at the time when the undertaking was about to close its well* spent existence a quartz reef was accidentally discovered in one of the workings. This discovery was followed by others of the kind in the company's mines, which finally gave a new bent to the energies of the management. Ex* plorations were made, and shortly revealed the existence of payable quartz in the leasehold in such vast quantity as to leave no possible room to doubt that the company would in the future transcend all its former richness and last out to almost the end of time The fact of its new born richness has already been veriBed amply. At the time of our visit quartz was being raised from a depth of 440 ft (the deepest present working) where the reef was 70ft thick, the aver* age thickness of the lode being over Spft. The yield of this stone per ton ranges from 2ozs downwards, and it is of a white flinty character, abounding in crystals. By the courtesy of Mr J. M. Sergeant, the manager, we descended the mine, and were shown over tbe workings,, but beyond tbe relatively enormous size of the, reef, -and the massiveness of tbe timbering, there was nothing in what we saw underground which calls for special reference. About 800 tons of stone are raised weekly. The battery plant is one of the finest in Australia. It was wholly designed by Mr Sergeant, and turned out by tbe Phoenix Company, Ballarat. It consists of 40-head of stamps, similar to those in use here. The stampers are self'feeding, there being two feeders to each battery, and one boy only being required to overlook the forty head. A patent stone»breaker is used which rr» duces the whole of the quartz to the required eauge. The amalgamating appliances consist of the ordinary run of tabling laid with common gutmey bag inifead of blanketing, the former mater* ials being found to answer the purpose best. Below the tables are fixed eight 11 Percussion tables" over which the taiffngs also run. These percussion tab* lee, which ere quite a recent invention, are said to be the best concentrators yet discovered. I will describe them fully in another article. Before the. erection of the Percussion tables the company used ordinary revolving barrels, and from thence the stuff was passed through separaters to catch the amnlgim, hut the tailings from this process has been tried with the "Percussion tables," and the great superiority of the latter demonstrated beyond doubt. The stone is largely charged with pyrites, to successfully treat which many kinds of ap* pliances have been tried — Wheeler's pans, Chilian mills, buddies," Arastor's,'' and many other appliances have b«en resorted to but the success achieved has not yet been up to what is desired. Quite recently Mr Sergeant conceived the idea of using ordinary flour millstones as grinders, and the result exceeded his expectations. The mill stones ground finer and quicker than any other appliance yet known, and the company are now erecting one of these mills, which will grind 5 tons daily against 3 tons of the Chilian mill, Large furnaces, on a new principle by Mr Sergeant were, just being erected for the purpose of burning tbe pyrites, and a novel feature in connection with the latter is that tbe poisonous fumes from the furnace instead of being allowed to escape will be treated chemically, and from the residue thus obtained, Mr Sergeant expects to be able to manufacture from se7en to eight tons of paint weekly. Sulphuric acid will also be another large production of the process, and as one cordial factory alone in Ballarat—Holland and Lewis, use 30 tons of sulphuric acid yearly, tbe revenue thus expected to be derived from tbe furnace will very largely supplement the profits of the company. The battery engine is 60 horse»power, and water is at present being purchased by the company from the Borough water works at the cost of £100 per month.