Hillv
Ballarat East, where the Victoria United Company's mill now stands. It
left the Black Hill and opened works on the Welcome lode. Not meeting
with the success anticipated, it removed its mill to Clunes. Since then
very little has been done on the lodes of this locality, excepting that
conducted a few years ago by a company known as the Grey Horse. This
was a. Glasgow company, and it bought the right to mine from a local
party. A good winding plant and a crushing mill of 40 heads were
erected, and a main shaft sunk to a depth of about 500 feet. , Works
were opened on Cook's lode and extended to the Welcome. According to a
statement, kindly furnished by "Mr. Christy, the Mining Registrar in
Ballarat,-48,721 tons were crushed for a return of 9,758 ozs. of gold.
This is a little over 4 dwts. to the ton, and it returned a profit. As
usual, in this class of lode, its gold deposits occur in its great
whale-shaped masses, and in its wing- and fin-like veins, in accordance
with the relationship of the parts of such to the system of drains from
gold slate with which it is associated. The company worked down and
along on a series of wide formations to the 500 feet level, and then
took out gold-bearing stone close in and around the shaft, with the
result, it is said, of the partial collapse of the shaft. In the
meantime, in the area to the south, it sank two other main shafts, one
to a depth of 700 feet, and the other to a depth of 320 feet, it is
said, and not meeting with gold-bearing quartz at once ceased
operations. Since then the locality has been left to fossickers, until
about twelve months ago, when a prospecting syndicate, comprising the
Honorable R. T. Vale, Mr. Holden, M.L.A., and Mr. Lugg, an experienced
miner of Little Bendigo, commenced operations on the Welcome lode, a little
to the north of the Grey Horse Company's No. 1 shaft. This partv is
under the direction of Mr. Lugg, and it has :! whim over a good shaft,
sunk to a depth of 160 feet. It appears that Lugg and partv had been
busv in mining auriferous patches at shallow depths, at intervals
since the Grey Horse Company abandoned the area, and it succeeded in
raising about 1,000 tons altogether, from which it obtained about 500
ozs. of gold. The present party has raised and treated about 300 tons
of quartz, for a return of 82 ozs. of gold, or an average of 5J dwts.
per ton. There is a good opportunity here for a companv ; a 30-head
mill is required, there being plentv of quartz even above water level.
To the south, on the Grey Horse area, companies known as the Dimock's,
the New Dimock's, and the North Dimock's, in early times mined the
wing-veins of this system, and from 64.000 tuns of quartz obtained a
yield of about 12,000 ozs. of gold, which averaged about 4 dwts. to the
ton. Later still, a Chinese company, known as the Woah Hawp Hong Kong,
ir.ined about 20,000 tons of quartz for a return of about 5,000 ozs. of
gold, being an average yield per ton of 5 dwts. Immediately south of
the latter company's area, and still in the sam; lode system, a lot of
comparatively shallow mining was done between the years 1884 and 1889.
Several of the wing " makes " of quartz, known as No. 1. No. 2, and No.
3, were worked to a depth of about 100 feet, for a total return of
1,509 ozs., from about 4,000 tons of quartz. This is an average of
about 7-1/2 dwts. to the ton. Most of the richest deposits of
quartz on this field (and, for that matter, on most of the fields I
have visited) terminate in sandstone, and here may be seen a wide bar
of sandstone, which forms a terminal to " makes " of quartz. In this
system these occur alternately in their extensions north and south, and
probably in depth also.
There
are several lodes to be seen outcropping near bv. none of which have
been, sampled, and on the range to the east an outcrop of quartz has
just been tested for returns of 3 dwts. and 8 dwts. to the ton. This
latter line belongs to a more easterlv system, known as the " Monte
Christo," which occupies the ridge of the Spur Range from " The Divide
" of the State, on which this Little Bendigo gold-field is situated.
As with the other systems, it occupies a trough in the corrugated rock
layers, and the slate of this trough has a very defined svstem of
drainage permeating it. The fractures, which contain the quartz lodes,
are the result of the twist movement of the field, although ths torsion
is perhaps not quite so much in, evidence as noted in the Dimock's
line. In years gone bv there was considerable mining activity here;
and, at different dates during the
