GOLD-SAVING APPARATUS.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 969, 10 May 1872, Page 3

GOLD-SAVING APPARATUS.

The' Grey River Argus' says :—"We bye had an opportunity of inspecting the plans of an apparatus invented by Mr Crossley, now of this town, which seems highly necessary for adaptation by the mining companies who are crushing or about to crush at the reefs. In its very simplicity its excellence is constituted, as it neither requires extra gear or runs any danger of breakage or stoppage to the works by getting out of order. It is a patent ripple wherein the quicksilver is made to act as wanted, despite of cold or atmospheric influences. As it is well known that mercury at 15deg. below zero freezes harder than solid iron and cannot possibly act as a recipient of gold, and then also contracts I to one-third of its dimensions when i active and well disposed, we can easily j imagine that any means that can [ remedy such inactivity in this most I necessary aid to gold-saving must be | of great importance to the district, i Such a want Mr Crossley's ripple proj fessea to meet. This plan has been successfully adopted at Wood's Point, where the atmospheric influence exerI rises such a depression upon the mercury as to render it almost totally j inactive. The same affair was also I experienced upon some of the claims | upon the Thames, and it was not until I Mr Crossley's apparatus was brought I into use that the real value of the stone I wag known. The deterrent influences I that operated against the true testing | and amalgamation of the quartz, gold, I *nd quicksilver, in both these places I are much in excess in the Reefton dis--1 tnct, inasmuch as the cold is greater I and the humidity is more. We also I snow from specimens shown that gold j « a very fine floury nature is obtained j jn many of the claims, and when such 18 the case, unless it is caught by some Te ry strong and powerful recipient the driest trickle of water will carry it ded all such difficulties are met by merely being able to keep up a re--1 p'site temperature of such a heat as Jo enable the mercury to act as wanted, "pples are kept in a continual I «ate of agitation during the crushing,

and receives all the matrix into a 9in trough, through which the mercury is at times running. Attached to this is a pipe which receives a continual supply of Bteam, which traverses through the three or four troughs that may constitute the apparatus. Along with this are other appliances of a substantial nature that act in conjunction to keep the mercury alive, while attached to them are the usual boxes and plates in ordinary use. It has, however, been proved in every case where these ripples have been tried that from 95 to 98 per cent, of the gold produced has been got in them, and this result has been when there have been silvered plates, blankets, and plush used in long fluming to catch what might have been missed in the first instance. In crushing by this process, as we have already observed, cold and like deterring influences upon the mercury are combated, and we should therefore welcome the introduction of such an aid as Mr Crossley has invented. It is simplicity itself, and when once looked at by experienced miners will, in our opinioD, be immediately adopted.