THE BUTCHER’S GULLY REEF.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2048, 27 November 1869, Page 2

THE BUTCHER’S GULLY REEF.

RESULT OF THE TRIAL CRUSHING. AN OUNCE Als T D A HALF TO THE TON. (prom the Cropiwell Argus.) As most of our readers af.e no cfoubt aware, the shareholders in the reef at ButcheFs Gully a few days ago determined to test by practical experiment the value of a small port'on of the stone taken from the bottom of the shaft recently sunk on their claim. For that purpose the company, through the mcdjuraqf Mr Holiday, acting-manager of the claim, and a shareholder in the concern, sent a ton and a half pf stone to he crushed at the battery of the Ida Valley Quartz-mining Company atHill’sGreek. Thestonewasnotpicked, hut merely taken at random from the top of the reef, where jt was fifst struck at a depth of about fiftv feet from the surface. ft

should also be stated that there was a considerable quantity of mullock adhering to the quartz, and that the stone experimented upon was by no means a fair specimen of the body of the reef. The expectations of the shareholders have been, we are happy to state more than realised ; for the crushing showed the most satisfactory and encouraging result of two ounces and ten pennyweights of pure gold, being at the rate of about one ounce and ten pennyweights to the ton. Through the courtesy of Messrs Jack and Halliday, two of the shareholders, our reporter was on Monday evening afforded an opportunity of examining the gold, which .appeared quite free from dross of any kind, and only slightly discolored from the effects of the retorting process. Mr Halliday informed us that the reef proper is about four feet in thickness, and much larger returns may therefore be reasonably expected when this undoubtedly valuable claim is got into full working order. The company intend to procure crushing machinery of their own without delay. The reef is situated close to the main road, about two miles and a half from Alexandra ; and we understand that claims have been marked off for a considerable distance on all sides of the present discovery. ' .