A GOLD-SAVING APPARATUS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3782, 29 August 1883, Page 4

A GOLD-SAVING APPARATUS.

Messrs Birchnll and Twining have been making experiments with models of their proposed apparatus for saving gold. On the Oth inst. a bag of bench tailings that had already been treated in tho ordinary manner, i.e., over the copper plates, was put through the machine in tho presence of the miners who brought it in, and they wei'o unable to find a single speck of gold iv the residue. The gold obtained, though plentiful iv quantity, was of a rusty character, and could not bo separated from tho debris in the ordinary manner. Tho principle of tho discovery might be applied in very many different ways, as circumstances or material to be operated upon required, but, broadly stated, it is this : If water is introduced with a certain pressure in hydraulic head undor a perforated plate on which a certain thickness of quicksilver is deposited, tho quicksilver remains on tho perforated plate, and is broken up into very small globules in violent commotion. Tho sand or other gold-carrying material to bo treated is brought into more intimate contact with the quicksilver than by any other process, being forced up through the plate, and through the quicksilver. Tins seems a very simple matter, but simple as it seems, it does not appear to have been tried beforo. The Chines ripple forces the material against _ the quicksilver ; this invention forces it through tho quicksilver. A machine may bo made to contain any number of bods of quicksilver, although two have been found sufficient for all practical purposes. The invention has been patented and will shortly bo tried on a large scale. It is tho opinion of many mmmg s exports that this process will ere long supersede all others for saving line gold. It appears to be particularly applicable to our beach workings. —B idler Miner.