GOLD IN PYRITES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 126, 31 May 1870, Page 2

GOLD IN PYRITES.

To the Editor op the Nelson Evening Mail. Sir — I beg to hand to you for publication the undernoted items which may i interest some of your readers who are engaged in quartz-mining. New North Clunes Quartz-mining Company, Ballarat, April 29, 1870. Extracts from the Manager's report. The quantity of quartz crushed for the quarter has been 7638 tons, yielding 60640zs 17dwts of gold; there have also been 74 tons I7cwt of pyrites treated, returning 3250zs lOdwts of gold, on an average ol 4ozs 6dwts 16grs per ton of pyrites. The total quantity of gold obtained for the quarter will thus be 63900zs 7 dwts, or an average of 16dwts 17igrs per ton, and in the quarterly report dated January 20, 1870, the manager states that the pyrites treated amounted to 85 tons 3|cwts returning 4260zs 4^dwts of bar gold, being an average of sozs per ton. The actual cost of treating these pyrites has been £258 14s 6d, leaving the very handsome profit to your company of £1,486 6s 6d, and, he adds, lmay mention the cost of treatment will be considerably reduced on the completion of the whole of the machinery, as we shall put through double the quantity of pyrites with but a trifle more expense than at present. The above extracts show the results of the new and profitable mo >c of extracting gold from pyrites after the ordinary machinery has failed to do so, and my opinion is that if the same process were adopted larger returns would be obtained per ton from iron and copper pyrite3at Collingwood where it abounds, than from their average crushiugs in sfcoce or mullock. The eastern ranges of Blind Bay from Aniseed Valley running towards the French Pass, are thoroughly impregnated with pyrites found to be mote or less goldbearing almost from the surface, and no doubt would increase in richness in like manner as the Clunes and other quartz-mining claims in Victoria, their various depths being from 100 to 600 ft. It is a wellknown fact that the Clunes Company did not pay a single penny to the shareholders for a long time, and during that period they had expended a very large sum of money, and no doubt numbers of shareholders sold out at a loss, but these individual losses did not in anyway in terfere with the works being carried on and at last to a success, but had anything been done or circulated detrimental to its ultimate success in all probability the Clunes Company would not now exist, aud the loss which | the public would have sustained would be equal to £150,000, which is now paid out annually for skilled and unskilled labor. In conclusion may I ask, if you had a few companies like the Clunes established at no great distance from Nelson, would the Nelsouites derive any benefit from it, would not landed property be increased in value tenfold, would not mercantile men have more trade, would not the artizan of this city have more orders and get better paid, in point of fact would not every class derive a benefit although some might lose money by the enterprise. I am, &c, A Digger.

Shooting at a Legislator. — la Melbourne on the 17th inst., Mr. G. H. Supple, barrister and journalist, met Geo. Paton Smith, M.L.A., in Latrobe-street, drew a revolver and fired four shots at him, one shot only taking effect on his elbow. Smith ran away, crying "save me." Walshe, an ex-detective, but now a publican, caught Supple, held him, and knocked him down. Supple then fired at Walshe, and the shot entered his abdomen. Walshe was conveyed to the hospital, but be gradually sank, and died on Weduesday afternoon. Smith is confined to bed. Supple is in custody. He regrets shooting Walshe, but he says he wished he had killed Smith. Miss Minnie Hawk, the American prima donna., has been singing at Moscow, where she seems to have created an extraordinary sensation. In " Faust " she was called out ten times after the garden scene, and six times at the end of the opera. A Pious Young Lady. — The church j bell(e).