radiating from the crown
and sides of the arch have, principally through the influence of
gravity, formed systems of circulation in this gold-slate. The
mineralized fluids, moving up and down, had their contents more or less
subject to the force of gravity at all times, and the slowest
circulation, or rather the most stagnant parts of the circulation,
deposited the most gold. I must here emphasize the fact that the angle
of the plane of the storage floor to the direction of gravity governs
whether or not the gold deposit is in concentrated, course, and often
nuggety form, or in that finely-distributed form which yields from
well-squeezed mill amalgam about one-third gold (pepper size). The
latter class of gold is met with more particularly in so-called
vertical lodes. Judging by the statements of mining men, and by what I
saw in old workings, the general features in matters of gold
occurrences on this field testify to the truth of this theory ; and,
after careful searching, not only in the Stawell mines, but in the
mines of all other mining centres of this State, I have failed to find
any evidence against it.
Great
extents of stone of low grade, but possibly payable, remain in the
higher levels of many of the Stawell mines, and there are many places,
even in the comparatively small area of these mineral-soaked Pyrenees
mountains, that may, some day, be carrying many prosperous towns.
Present
mining in Stawell is conducted more on a business basis than
previously, the effort being to produce a steady return from the great
masses of low-grade stone. There must be fully 100,000 tons of ore,
already mined, represented by the different mullock heaps near the many
shafts, all of which are gold-bearing. These heaps are principally made
up of so-called ;' magpie " lode stuff and slate permeated
with sulphide, principally of iron (mundic). All these heaps may be
treated in the near future, experience having shown that it is a
mistake to suppose that the quartz only in the lode areas is
gold-bearing. The general saturation of all the rocks containing the
lode system of Stawell by hot solutions of quartz, gold, and sulphides,
has produced masses of mill ore. This ore, in many places, is partly
composed of the gold-slate found associated in all of our gold-mining
centres with payable gold deposits. This slate is similar in its
texture to that noted elsewhere, and samples obtained from one of the
heaps showed free gold on its leaves, as in a similar deposit seen
during my rambles from Percydale to St. Arnaud. With larger mills,
plenty of water, blankets, and concentrators of the Wilfley type, far
greater widths of formations, even where in track form, could probably
be treated in Stawell for payable results.
There
are but three Stawell mines at present active, the Magdala, the
Amalgamated Scotchmans and Perthshire, and the General Gold-fields
Limited (of London). There are many good shafts, some of which have
been sunk to depths below 1,500 feet, on ground formerly worked. These
were put down when each company's area was much smaller than at
present, and they represent a great waste of energy, inasmuch as the
whole region of Stawell's mining could be worked in three shafts at the
most.
At
the Amalgamated mine operations are being carried on in the formation
of the western leg at the 1,100-ft. level, and on the eastern leg,
evidently, in the 1,000-ft. level. There is between these legs about
900 feet of centre country, containing more than one lode track, one of
which has been followed a little to the north and south on parts
widened to lode form. This mine is situated about 2,000 feet to the
south of the Magdala Company's area.. To the east the lode, which I
assume to be a southerly continuation of the eastern leg now being
worked by the Magdala Company, is about 30 feet in width, and is all of
the " magpie" class of ore. The
