TASMANIAN SILVER MINES.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 677, 21 May 1870, Page 4

TASMANIAN SILVER MINES.

«. [ARGUS.] The occurrence of silver ore on the north-west coast of the island, near Penguin creek, has, we are informed, been known for some yeara past. The ore has a matrix of carbonate of lime (ealc spar), and is, it is said, a totally different ore to any found in Victoria. It is known as " fahlerz" by the German miners, and is an argentiferous grey copper ore. Mr Newbery, the late analyst for the mining department, states : — ' ' It yields 78oz 19 dwt of silver per ton. This is an assay of the undressed ore. If it was crushed and washed the result would be much higher. The ore also contains copper, lead, cobalt, nicked, antimony, arsenic, iron, and sulphur." The economical constituents are silver, cobalt, nicked, and copper. It easily fuses without flux into a regulus, and it is intended by the company now being formed to mine for it, to sell the metal in that shape in London by assay. A lead vein is situated close to the silver vein, which yields on assay 69 per cent, of lead, and 18oz Odwt 3gr of silver to the ton. The ore is exposed on the surface along the shore of Bass's Straits, and can be followed a considerable distance, so that some hundreds cf tons are in sight. On the land side it is covered by great basaltic ranges, densely timbered, which will yield the fuel necessary for the reverberatory furnace. The proprietors have secured land sufficient to give about o.'.e mile in length on the persumed course of the lodes. It is quite reasonable to expect that the colonies abound in silver along the gold line, as in California, where the richest silver mines have been discovered, the ores are very similar to those fouiid in Tasmania.