MACHINERY FOR QUARTZ CRUSHING PURPOSES.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2106, 4 February 1870, Page 2

MACHINERY FOR QUARTZ CRUSHING PURPOSES.

There can he little doubt but that Otago is a quartz reefing country, .and that the particular branch of mining will eventually exercise an important influence upon the future of the province. Meantime we are told that the development of the more recent discoveries drags along slowly, despite the fact that there were ushered into public notice under the most promising auspices. The reason annexed to this fact is very soon told. It docarfiot arise from any lack of confidence in thWftie value of the reefs themselves. contrary the further the work is prosecuted the stronger the evidence becomes that they are rich repositories of our auriferous wealth. Unlike some of the other branches of gold mining prosecuted in Otago, labor alone cannot develop them. Machinery is required almost from the very outset and in the absence of such machinery it is utterly impossible for the reefer to initiate his 1 labours with the smallest prospect of carrying them on successfully. This is a proposition that will be readily understood by the most ignorant on the subject of mining. The golden stone must be pounded down and reduced to a liquid substance before the veins of the auriferous wealth can be extracted, and to do this with any degree of success preliminary expenses in the shape of a heavy outlay for stampers is requisite. A reef may be opened and the stone taken out, but there the work must cease until the aid of machinery has been evoked. This then is precisely the point at which the working of the reefs in Otago has arrived. The miners we are told have gob stone in greater or lesser quantities brought to the surface, and are waiting anxiously for appliances necessary to bring their labors to a successful issue.

This fact suggests a question of importance to the public at large. Victorian expcence is constantly thrust under our notice, and if we take either Victoria or California we find that as an outlet for capital, no investment could possibly be more advantageous than the establishment of public crushing companies. It is not money sunk with the prospect of making what is known in digging parlance as an immediate pile, and the alternative of incurring a dead loss. It is nob like embarking in one these uncertain projects, undertaking for tens, but not completed until hundreds have been expended. The limits of the capital can be ascertained with as much accuracy as the purchase price of a freehold allotment or any marketable commodity. The exigencies of commerce demande a ready sale ; for, on the other hand, the working expenses are in proportion to the amount of reproductive labor done ; so that for a sure investment a public crushing company is amonst the safest that could be formed.

As a private investment, it is not a whit more inviting than it is as a public undertaking. That in the Bendigo Gully discoveries we have detected one of the lines of our auriferous wealth, or rather one of the primary sources of our golden treasures, cannot be doubted. The most reliable theory is that it forms a coupling link between Skippers and the reefs at the Shotover on the one side, and Ida Valley and the Marewhenua on the

other. Machinery of this kind would stimulate the prosecution of these discoveries, and in prosecuting one particular branch of the calling, others arc bound to bo brought to light. Population is one of the chief wants o£ our goldfields, and so far as the naked, eye can decide the point, we are assured that at Bendigo Gully alone stone is lying stacked up for crushing, which would attract attention to the resources of Otago throughout the length and breadth of the land. In connection with this subject, we have noted suggestions in our up-country files. The Cromwell journal refers to the current of the Kiver Clutha, which flows within three miles of the Bendigo Gully reefs. The current, according to that authority, is equal to ‘211,000 horse-power nominal, and the fall estimated at from ten to twelve feet per mile. In further support of the proposal it is stated that the river opposite Bendigo is an extensive fiat, through which, at a very trifling cost, a race similar to that of a mill-dam could be cut. The undertaking, including machinery, is estimated at LISOO, and at the very low figure of 5s per ton for crushing, it is said that LOO per week would be the “ takings.” Of course, we simply furnish the details as they come to us ; still they have a semblance of feasibility which merits public attention. It has another bearing which we consider of no small moment. It broaches the question of utilising our river currents for motive power in goldfields pursuits, and the practicability of such an adaptation cannot bo too soon demonstated. The Government is asked, and we think reasonably too, to prove the levels and provide preliminary surveys. The request is one which we do not think can be seriously objected to, it would serve the double purpose of paving the way for private companies, besides being the means of attracting public attention to the matter.