DISCOVERIES OF ANTIMONY. AT

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1592, 11 September 1873, Page 2

DISCOVERIES OF ANTIMONY . AT

The well-informed of [ x an article in the Nelson Examiner on the. subject of the recent discoveries of .antimony in the .Inangahua district has the following remarks on the nature of antimony deposits and their value : — ' •■;■ The discovery of a lode of an ore of antimony ia of much more importance than might be supposed by those who have not given much attention to the subjecti Ifj, as is indicated in the description given. . the lode is of a character to permit of the comparatively nori- auriferous portion being separatedfrom. that;whibb, contains the precious metal, it will fmct ; a readymarket in Melbourne as " in' London. Twelve years ago the dematTdrfoE-anti-mony in the English market was; comparatively small, because the- [supplies were irregular, the quality was poor and becoming poorer, and the uses to which the metal might be put had i not I been carefully tested , while the want <oft supplies rendered the market too- uncertain for" the manufacturers; of I . mixed^metal ware to give it consideration. The chief source of supply then was Bornecy but the mines there had begun to fail, and ore which had previously given from-30 to 40) per cent, of autimony had become 1 ; so deteriorated that not more thari 33 per cent, of pure metal could be obtained from it. It; was at .this time, the ore then jbeing worth no, more than Ll2 103 in the Melbourne market, or something like Ll4 in that of London, that the metal brokers of the great city on the Thames began to urge upon their Australian correspondents the importance of looking out fo* newmetals, and especially for ores 6f antimony. It was about the Bame time that the antimony mine at Costerfield, in the Macivor district of Victoria;, was opened. ! At' first the company separated the ore which showed no traces of gold from that which did give signs of the yellow' metal ; andj beginningcautiously, they have since prosecuted the business, and are now, in fact, the sole suppliers of the. London market. The quality of the ore 1 they send home is good ; the Sheffield manufacturers find tKat, -having regular supplies, they can utilise it in mixing it with other metals in place of ore of another and: adearer kind. It now takes the place of zinc in the composition of those wares- which we know as Britannia metal. It is used to toughen the ironsides armor-plated shipa-of-war, as well as the peaceable printers' type, which carries the news of the world even to the valley of the Inangaliua. It forms the composition which give' ;fco plateglass its value in reflecting the face of beauty. The English. makWwhite paint of it: and the Chinese are ingenious enough to improve upon English practice, and from the same material produce an intense black— black enough %r the widow . of- seven husbands—and- a very

brilliant crimson. A few months ago the non-auriferous ore was worth L 24 per ton in London ; and at this moment it is saleable in Melbourne at L2O per ton, to a firm which, by an easy but secret process of Bmelting, converts it into the metal known as "regulus" — in other words, a metal containing 90 per cent, of antimony. The reefer has to remember that a ton of non-auriferous ore of antimony is more valuable than a ton of quartz yielding five or six ounces of gold to the ton, because there is no crushing or amalgamation needed. It is only necessary to quarry the ore cut as if it were of no more importance than Milestone, at>d ship it to the metal refiners in London. But he must also be?r in mind that if be attempts to crush a mixed lode, antimony and auriferous quartz, he is likely to lose more gold than he saves. Antimony in some respects resembles quicksilver. It has the quality of absorbing and retaining gold as quicksilver has, and it does not j release it freely even in the retort. At Costerfield this fact was early discovered. The crushed metal was made to drop in spouts as thick as a lady's finger from the stamp-box to the copper-plates, in the hope that the mere weight of the gold would force it through the diluted antimony on to the copper-plates and into the ripples of the tables. Three ounces of gold to the ton were obtained in that way, but an'early visitor — the writer of this article, in fact — pointed out that the company were losing at least as much gold as they saved. There came an interruption in the working of the mine, which gave the manager an opportunity of testing the contents of the tailings pit. He had the refuse re-crushed, and ob2oz to the ton of sludge. He tried a third crushing of the same refuse, and then obtained another ounce per ton. The fact was that it was always impossible to separate the gold from the matrix, quicksilver being of comparatively litile use in the process. Now the Costerfield Company crush only the most auriferous portions of the lode. After twelve years of work, and at a depth of 450 ft, after heavy pumping, they have only lately come upon the main antimony lode. The non-auriferous portions sell readily in Melbourne at L2O per ton. Tho mixed metal they ship to the refiners in London; the tailings they crush and re-crush. We relate these facts merely as hints to the antimony reefers at Inangahua, that they may take care they do not throw away a marketable ore, and more of the precious metal than it is possible their batteries can save. . . .-. : ■■