£198,196,206, the mining operations extending over an area of twelve hundred and thirty-five square miles.
Ararat
district contains large deposits of the upper and newer pliocene,
considered to be of marine origin, but no gold in workable quantities
has been found in any of these beds. The workable placers occur in the
lower newer pliocene, whose origin is clearly a result of fluvia-tile
agency. A fact worthy of mention is that in the neighborhood of Ararat,
so far as yet explored, not a single well-defined quartz-vein has been
found to contain pay gold.
In
the northern portion of the Ararat fields the deposits attain a depth
of from ninety to one hundred and fifty feet. In the Great Western mine
the deposit, composed of older pliocene gravel-drift resting upon
disintegrated granite, has been mined for a length of two miles and a
width which in places exceeds twelve hundred feet. From accumulations
of saline waters, and from undulations both horizontally and laterally
of the bed rock, it is considered that " the lead " is simply a
depression in a former sea-bottom.
In
the Ballarat fields there are four clearly defined epochs of
gold-drift, whose relative local positions are indicated by their
names : " Oldest," " Older," " Recent," and " Most Recent." The "
Oldest " period includes a deposit antecedent to the time at which the
channels were eroded to their present depth. The " Older " embraces the
deposit intervening between the lava-flows. Deposits of " Recent" age
are those following immediately the uppermost lava flow. " Most Recent
" drifts are those in most recently eroded gullies. There are three
great lead systems near Ballarat, called the " Southern," " Western,"
and " Eastern." The " Southern " has been explored extensively ; the "
Western " is looked upon by some as the future hope of Ballarat in
alluvial mining ; the " Eastern " is but little known.
The alluvial deposits in Beechworth district have been
