GOLD-MINE WONDERS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4589, 23 July 1923, Page 4

GOLD-MINE WONDERS.

GREATEST FIELD IN THE WORLD. The greatest gold mine in the world lies at Timmins, 500 miles north of Toronto. Thirteen years ago, an outcropping of rock lay unknown in the heart of a wild bush country. It had been there in solitude for untold years, A man came struggling through the bush, his belongings packed on his back. He saw the rock. His eyes said " Gold!” The man (says the “ Pall Mall Gazette ’’) was a young prospector named Ben Hpllin-’ ger. To-day the Hollinger mine covers more than 400 acres ; below its surface run 45 miles. of z .tunnels and an electric railway system; its great mills roar ceaselessly, and £2OO- - in gold leaves its refinery every month- The Hollinger mine has become the greatest in the world. For two years it has been running neck and neck with its nearest rival, the great New Modderfontein of the Rand, South Africa. The most recent figures, however, show that while the output of the Transvaal mine has declined, the Hollinger is steadily forging ahead. What does the world s richest treasure chest look like ’ To be truthful, it looks like anything on earth but a gold mine. It looks like a boiler factory, or a 'pork-packing plant, or anything unromantic. Closer inspection shows that ore comes down through a series of crushing?,, fed to a carrier-belt, hurried in endless round to the mill. Followed there, one found more crushing mills with water introduced,, until the coarse ore had become thin grey soup. And the thin grey soup finally became black paste, which went to the furnace in the refinery, and there became a yellow gold. All this messiness and ugliness and noise, after all, was making gold from meaningless grey rock,, which held no hint of beauty. In that lay compensation. The manager, Mr A. F. Brigham, who had mined gold in every country where gold is found, states that “in no place in the world is there such a concentration of riches in so small an area.” Hollinger produced £2,400,000 in 1922. This year it is planned to mill 7000' tons of ore a day, instead of 4300 present daily average. Yet for years to come Hollinger will be using only a fraction of its resources. Its milling thus far has been chiefly from above the 400 ft level, and of its 400 acres only a fraction has been even developed. It is calculated that Hollinger holds wealth at £30,000 fpr every foot of shaft. Its nearest neighbour, the Mclntyre, is prepared to mine to 5000 feet depth. To a similar depth HoL linger holds something like £150,000,000 of gold. Hollinger at present is employing 2300 men, of which 1800 work underground. They are arranged ,in three shifts. For eight hours each day they work in a cavern of gold—millions overhead,, millions underfoot—and never see it,-for the greatest gold mine in the world displays no yellow metal until the re’flenery has done its work.