MINERALS IN VICTORIA.

Southland Times, Issue 1010, 26 August 1868, Page 3

MINERALS IN VICTORIA.

Silver ia obtained in Victoria, at St. Arnaud, from which locality up to the Slst December, 1887, 12,5910 aof silver had been obtained. At St. Arnaud all the argentiferous atone yet tested yields from 50s to ?0s worth of gold and silver mixed per ton, and has been found on the aurfaoe, and between that and a depth of 50ft., and experience teaohes that the masses of aTgentifero.ua rook become larger as they descend, and that the metal is found in larger quantities the deeper the shaft is sunk } and this is what shows the permanenoe of these deposits. The worki in the most celebrated silver-mines of Europe and Mexico are earned on at a depth varying from 1,500 ft 2,500 ft., and the total yield of the lode at ComstocK for the flrat bJx months of the year 186? wai valued at over £4,000,000. In the Woolshed Creek, and in other localities in the neighborhood of Beechworth, stream tin is found. In Gippa Land, on the banks of the river Thomson, upwards of 850 tonß of copper ore have been raised, yielding from fifteen to nineteen per cent of copper. The same metal is also found in Specimen Gully, Castlemaine, and 8t St. Arnaud. At Steialitz, small quantities of copper pyrites are found, and also at Inglewood, Dnnolly, Castlemaine, and Bendigo. M'lvor furnishes cuproplutnbite ; and at "Wombat Creek, mining division of Omeo, bismuth is found. At Tackandandah, in the Ovens district, specimen of molybdenite and sulphuret of molybdenum are found. At Maryborough, Euthglen, Heathcote, Whroo, Anderson's Creek, and in many other parts of the country, the ores of antimony, sulphuret, and oxide, are found. In some of the specimens of oxide of antimony small pieces of gold have been discovered. Upwards of two hundred tons of lignite have been procured at Lai Lai, near Ballarat. On the banks of the Muckleford Creek, near the Loddon Eiver, carbonite of magnesia or magnesite has been obtained. Precious stones, such as the sapphire, spinal ruby, topaz, zircon, and amethyst are to be found in the auri- • ferous drifts of nearly all the goldfields. Some very fine blue sapphires have been found in the country of Mornington at Tubba Rubba Creek. At Eeid Creek, "Wooragee, "Woolshed, Sebastopol, fifty-seven diamonds in all have been found. Two thousand three hundred and eighty-one quartz reefs, covering an area of eight hundred and sixty eight square miles, produced to the 31st December, 1867, 4,925,440 tons of stone, yielding lldwt 16*14gr. of gold per ton ; and the estimated value of the machinery on the several goldfields in Victoria is £2,609,195 ; and the total estimated value of gold from its first discovery to the 3lst December, 1867, is £135,643,811, representing, at £4 per ounce, 33,9 10,9520z of gold. The estimated total number of miners is 65,851, out of which number 15,676 are Chinese. The goldfields now extend from Stawell to the river Bendoc, on the eastern borders of the colony, a distance of 350 miles, and from north to south about 180 miles. The quantity of gold exported during 1867 was 1,433,6870z, of which 560,5270z was obtained from quartz, and 878,1600z from alluvial workings. — Mining Statistics.