NEW GOLD-EXTRACTING MACHINE.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 320, 17 April 1875, Page 4

NEW GOLD-EXTRACTING MACHINE.

.{From the Sydney 'Morning Herald.') ißrcently a number of gentlemen inte • rested in mining matters visited Canterbury, with a view < f inspecting a machine lately patented in this and the adjoining colonies by Messrs, Lawson, JafFray, and Co, for the extraction of . gold and silver from quartz and mineral substances. The machine is erected on premises formerly used as a wool-washing establishment, on •the other side of Cook's River, near the; rlam at Canterbury. It consists of two ; revolving drums driven by means of a pulley, and fitted on hollow axlea.' By. means of a hopper, the ore (after having, been previously operated upon by stampers, or a Chilian mill) is discharged ,into the first of the tvyo drums, where it is ;Fur- ' •ther ground by the action of a jarge ball, •IScwt. (the same diameter as the halfcircle of the drum), and four small ones of 2.,'wt. each, hot or cold water being intro- 1 duced into the drum through the hopper' and axle by pipes. About 75 per cent, of the gold is retained in this drum, and the refuse passes .through a screen 80 to the inch, along the .hollow rxle to the .next drum, which is supplied with two large balls the diameter ot the drum. This drum differs from the other in that it .has an outer channel filled with mercury, which the balls do not interfere with, bills crush'the ; VRfuse passed-from the'first drum, anl the gold sinks : into''the •frtefrflr-l py. Tlr; refuse after this crushing .theri passes into the hollow axle through^,.Very fine grating, 1025 to the square a corrugated silver ripple, and so oh' to jthe waste spout and the amalgam tub. iri {he second drum about 25 per cent, of the gold is retained by the quicksilver, and an the result ol the trial ot the machine for some months past not more than .one grain, to the ton has been found to pass througfi.lhe. discharging spout into the amalgam tub'filyowl'what is charged : \yi'th' mercury.'.'•'file inventors' claim that although ',the t'juMgS' from this machine have' frequently' tested, no gold has ever been found!; in'* them. There are openings - f irt%W encli of which is seven fbe't ih which the gold and amalgam are removed; wiih facility. The screens in the axles' ran he removed, and others finer or coarser ' peadiJy substituted. The balance of a Jot quartz from ; the "Peep of Bay claiW, (rambaroora,'' was put through the ma-" chine It was first, ground by means of: a', machine into a size suitable for crushing in' a Chilimi mill, which then operated on the ftone, and reduced it still further. Then it was put into the hopper, through which it wns discharged into.the new machine ; the whole of the machinery being-driven by a powerful steam engine. . More than fmir tons of the lot of storle from the I'eep of Day claim has yielded from 15 dwt to 16 dwt to the toh crushed by this machine", although the quartz is said to be:inferior to s'onc that only gave about sdwt to .the ton by t!ie appliances used at Tambaroora., In f.wt j:he stone was set.aside as worthless, nrtd would not' have been operated on but I >r the purpose of testing 'this new machine. ' -