IMPROVED GOLD-SAVING APPLIANCES.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 255, 14 April 1888, Page 7

IMPROVED GOLD-SAVING APPLIANCES.

A recent Hsue of the Chi KLcluireh Pre«, has the following. — "Manyieferences have been made lately to Mollrvy's amalgamators, and Askham'^ pulveiiser. We learn that these machine* me at work in Australia, and we hoar of them abt ut being inlioduced at the Thames and at Reef ton, but if is not general!) Known that the machinery recentU erected <m the lied Hill (?<>'■; giound at Colhngwood, kelson, comprises botli A^kam's pulveriser and MolloyS nmaliramator? .^> avr-in^o.i with Muinlord and Mood\'s patent separator^, that the complete j'lant embraces some of the latent improvements of tin 1 day. We h.ul the pleasure <~\ inspecting fhU nnchinen months a'j;o, and .Ntr Hale the cnirineei m chary* 1 ol it, kitullv explained \i> \.v.u>u* oapibilitics The quaitz is first i educed by a IM.ike'stono breaker, it then parses into A^-k-hamS patent centrifugal pulvernei. T!ie pulverising action is gained bj cliill'^Utei'l roll> at the end of iron auih, being driven at about, 2.">0 revolutions per minute within mas-sive steel rings, j The rolls tit centrifugal action which j give- the crushing pressure ; this operation is cauied on within an iron cylinder and when the quartz is sufficiently reduced, it is forced through the sieves and out of the cylinder by a powerful blast. The powdered qnaitz, then pas-^es into a Slumlord and Moody>' Sepai ator. which, acting somewhat on t lie principle of a midliugs purifier in a flour mill, extracts all the finest powder, and returns the larger particles to the pulveiif.er. The finest of the powder h then conveyed into mixers, where it is reduced to thin mud by being stirred in water j the thin mud tben enter 3 the Molloy's Patent Amalgamators, which consist of circular pans about 3ft Gin in diameter, and nearly the same height. A considerable quantity of mercury is placed in each of the pans into which, when thus charged, a heavy slate disc, only a little less than the inside of the pans, is lowered on to tli2 mercury with the result that it forces it nearly half way up the sides of the pan. The slate disc has what would be called in a millstone (l an eye " which \*> simply a hole through its centre ; the quartz in the shape of mud parses into this eye, and the slate disc revolving, carries the mud through the mercury, thus every portion of gold that is in the quartz is exposed to a great quantity of mercury, which, being kept active by a jet of hydrogen gas, generally by a current of electricity, exhibits the greatest possible affinity for the metal. Mr Hale stabs that this machinery can save 95 per cent, of gold from ordinary quartz, ami that machinery capable of putting through 320 tons of quartz per week can be purchased (delivered in New Zealand) for £2000. We may add that 120 tons per week is nearly equal to the work of 20 head of stampers, and that, as a matter of fact, not 50 per cent, of the gold is obtained by the latter process."