IMPORTANT EXPERIMENTS UPON QUARTZ.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 85, 25 September 1869, Page 5

IMPORTANT EXPERIMENTS UPON QUARTZ.

" Professor Abel has recently been engaged in some very important experiments in the art of extracting gold from different kinds of quartz, and other matrices in which the precious metal is found, and he appears to have had great success in his treatment of the subject in hand. One grand result has been the treatment of the pyrites obtained from the quartz crushed by the Isis Company, at Sfcuarfc mill. The whole of the stone in the different reefs of that district has long been noticeable for the great quantity of mundic or pyrites it contained, but although it was supposed, if not actually known, to contain gold, few will be prepared to find it so rich as Mr. Abel's analysis shows. After the last crushing of the company named, upwards of twelve tons of pyrites and heavy sand were saved, and one bucketful of these tailings, alleged to represent about a twenty-sixth part of a ton, was treated so as to concentrate the pyrit;s as much as possible before subjecting it to analysis. This left about half a pound of pyrites, which was again freed from sand, and six ounces of the pyrites produced very nearly one ounce of gold. Mr. Abel, however, had not concluded his analysis this afternoon, and there may be another quarter of an ounce obtained. This would give an average yield from the tailings of about 325. per ton, and from the pure pyrites of over 5000 oz. per ton. These tailings were only estimated to yield five or six ounces per ton, so that if those who have the manipulation of them can only get half of the gold the analysis has prov.-d them to contain, they will raise the average of the Isis yield to two and a half to two and three quarter ounces per ton of quartz. But the greatest achievement of Mr. Abel has been the discovery that from the yellow slate and sandstone that abounds here, fine gold can be extracted at the rate of 3dwt. per ton. It will remain to be seen whether batteries or any other crushing powers will be able to extract gold in the same proportion. If they can, there are millions on millions of tons of stuff similar to what was shown me that maybe operated upon.." If the above extract is to be relied upon (of which there can be little doubt), there may yet be a chance for Canterbury, as I have been informed by several parties who have analysed iron pyrites or mundic, that in many instances this class of mineral has undergone the usual tests applied to gold without showing the slightest effect, thereby' indicating, as shown in the above, the presence of that .metal in more or less quantities: — a Canterbury