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doubt,
high, on account of the distribution of the effort of production into
so many small concerns. According to a recent statement in the press,
prepared by Mr. R. A. Rankin, of Bendigo, concerning Fosterville
mines— " Between April, 1895, and December. 1902, £50,543 was paid as
mining wages, £20,144 in battery wages, £7,037 for firewood, £2,058 for
whipping and carting, £1,536 for mining timber, £5,115 for crushing,
£9,449 for raining stores and material, while £16,094 had been expended
on machinery, and the Mines and Water Supply Department had received
£757 for water and £621 for lease rents." In addition to these large
sums expended by • public companies, it was estimated that "private
parties had spent £17,287 in wages and £5,504 in material, making a
total of £136,752. Public companies called up capital to the extent of
£8,013, and dividends representing a total disbursement of £11,417 had
been declared. Two hundred and eighty thousand three hundred and
thirty-three loads were crushed for 28,311 ozs. 16 dwts., the value of
the gold won being set down at £111.618. The average cost per load was
7s. 2d., and the average return 2 dwts. There are now ten batteries,
with 131 head of stampers, on the field."
There
is plenty of ore as rich as this about Tarnagulla, great widths of it
including the wing slate country, that should be moving through
heavy-head quick-action mills at no distant date. This should be the
case, not only in Tarnagulla, but all through the great gold-field
examined for this report.
A
little to the north of the town a company known as the Yorkshire was,
at the date of my visit, driving in wide stone in one of the lower
levels of its mine. If my notes are correct, the main shaft is down to
a depth of 790 feet. Here again golden outcrops attracted attention,
and a small party followed the stone down to about 400 feet. This party
got into trouble and a mortgage ; aud in due course an English concern
stepped in. The lode is of the wing type, and it averages" in width
about 10 feet (Fig. 22). It is rich or poor in accordance with its
association with slate drains, and in places where its sub-wing "makes"
extend in the slate layers, some remarkably rich patches have been met
with. The mining in it
now,
however, is of the " rooting " order, there being a lot of sampling by
sight in search of patches. Such mining usually ends in disaster. It
appears to be another instance of an effort to realize averages equal
to that of the outcropping favoured situation worked in the first
place. I was informed that the bulk ore here is equal to 3 dwts. to the
ton. This requires a 50-stamp mill, with heavy heads and quick action,
and should yield a high and steady rate of interest on the necessary
capital, as well as a big dividend every fortnight to Tarnagulla's
labour and trade. The mill now on the mine has eight heads of 6 cwts.
each, and is altogether inadequate for great masses of low-grade ore.
Mr. W. -I. Laidlaw is the general and mining manager, and Mr. James
Patterson the underground manager.
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