THE LA MONTE PROCESS.

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1637, 9 December 1885, Page 2

THE LA MONTE PROCESS.

« I Writing on the La Monte test at the Thames, the local correspondent of the New Zealand Herald says : — "It will be remembered that Mr La Monte expressed a very high opinion of Karangahake as a silver -producer. What has the furnace done to establish that opinion, and what becomes of all the grand 500oz and lOOOoz testa, in face of results? True, but very little ore has been submitted to the furnace y»t, and it is desirable not to dog matise upon very limited experience. But that experience is a discomforting indicator. The heaviest indictment, however, to my mind is the inability to treat heavily mineralised stone. Anyone at all familiar with the goldfields that the difficulty iv biittery treatment lias been mineral in the quartz. A high percentage of free gold can easily be saved, but the probability is that the heavy mineral in some quartz carries a great deal of gold, or sickens the plates and silver." This Mr La Monte has said was just the stone for the furnace, but now his agents stated that roasting furnaces would be required, when the stuff could be treated at 20s or 80s a ton extra. On this the correspondent adds : (> I was not prepared for snub a variation from the original representation, and I felt inclined to say, upon hearing this, "Thank you for nothing.*' If we desired to roast the quartz, apparatus could be attached to our batteries for doing so, as is done in America. I am convinced that with the expenditure of a few shillings per tou extra in treatment in some classes of quartz, particularly refactory oi'«««^ p**»flt might result where at present the balance is on the other aide. If I may venture a tentative judgment, in the light of very slight experience of the furnace, it is to improvement in our present gold saving appliances, or a revolution in the treatment of gold, rather than to the furnace, we must look for greater profits from onr gold mines. As to silver,' the furnace must have a good trial Wore it would be just to express an opinion npon a subject so foreigu to our experience on this field."