Proposed Exportation of Quartz Tailings.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 19, 23 March 1870, Page 3

Proposed Exportation of Quartz Tailings.

On the important question of “ Will quartz tailings pay for working?" tho Bendigo Advertiser says : —“ Looking at the large quantities of tailings which are spread over the district, the solution of this question becomes of very great importance ; and we have frequently wondered that in the present day of discoveries in chemistry no successful experiment has been made to prove whether quartz tailings will pay for washing. It appears, however, that the subject, which has been neglected in tho coloniesj- is likely to receive attention at the hands of scientific men in England. We understand that Messrs L. M.‘Pherson & Co., of this town, have received a commission from some capitalists in Loudon to forward about half-a-dozen samples of tailings, of about one hundredweight each, to London. These will bo subjected to a careful analysis by one of the best chemists and metallurgists in England ; and should gold be found in payable quantities, we understand a company will be formed in England to purchase all that is available in this district. In the event of the experimental trial being successful—and we have little doubt of it—-the company purpose to adopt either the course of sending the tailings to England as ballast in home-going vessels, or to erect machinery and plant here for the purpose of working them. Looking at the trial that is about to bo made only in the light of an experiment, it is a subject for congratulation that the machine-owners in the district will have the question properly solved without incurring any expense.”