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GOLD IN CEYLON.
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Mr.
Cosmo Newbery was spoken of as having introduced several improvements
in these processes. The paper concluded with some illustrations of
failure and success from using unsuitable and suitable appliances
respectively. Regarding the latter we quote the following:—
The
first and most prominent example is the well-known l'ort Philip Co., of
Victoria, to whose managing director, Mr. Rivett Bland, the science of
gold-mining is much indebted. This company has to raise its ore from a
depth of 700 to 1,000 ft. During the past 10 years, it has treated
000,531 tons, the average yielded of which was 5 dwt. 13 gr., the
extremes being 3 dwt. 23-1/2 gr. in 1873, and 7 dwt. 21 gr. in
1878. The same company has treated 3,592 tons of pyrites, yielding an
average of 4 oz. 3 dwt. 17 gr. of gold, when concentrated. The average
total cost of treatment has been £3 13s, 7d. a ton: the average profit,
,£13 5s. Another Australian company, getting part of its ore from
surface workings, has profitably crushed 283,550 tons, with an average
yield of 2 dwt. 22 gr. Another treated 7,453 tons in seven months, with
a return of 2 dwt. 10-1/2 gr-i and paid £2,101 10s. profit. Another
realises a large profit from a yield of only 1 dwt. 14 gr. per ton of
ore crushed. But the most remarkable of all is the Imperial Company, at
Ballarat, which has treated 2,100 tons of quartz, affording only 21-99
gr. of gold per ton, with a fair margin of profit on the operation; in
other words, it has made money out of material which is only one-tenth
part as rich as the non-pyiitous material which its neighbours are
throwing away. ________________________
GOLD IN CEYLON. (From the Ceylon Observer, April 23, 1881.)
It
is evident that in the preliminary operations necessary to the
development of a gold-mining industry in Ceylon, private enterprise is
to do the work with little or no aid from Government. It has been so,
to a great extent, in reference to " new products." Vastly different is
the relative positions of the Government and private planters in
reference to cinchona cultivation, for instance in Java or India and in
this island; and in regard to gold, we have the so-called slow and
old-fashioned Indian Government at a very early stage indenting on the
services of the highest living authority, Mr. Brough Smyth, for an
elaborate survey and report of their supposed auriferous region, while
as we have stated, the whilom progressive Executive Administration of
this island is content to sleep over the business, and to allow the
merchants and planters individually to do the best they can to discover
whether paying quartz reefs with gold exist in the country. No one can
read Mr. Brough Smyth's elaborate report (lying before us as we write)j
covering 100 folio pages and referring mainly to "the gold mines of the
South-Eastern portion of the Wynaad and Carcar Ghaut," without feeling
that had Sir Henry Ward or Sir William Gregory administered here in
1879-80, instead of Sir James Longden, an official request for the
services of this officer would have been transmitted to Madras long
before the general public had begun to look around for the means of
securing professional advice for themselves.
The
opportunity, however, for timely official action is past; for we learn
on good authority that a Colombo mercantile house, Messrs. Alstons,
Scott & Co., have already decided to endeavour to secure the aid
and advice of Mr. Brough Smyth in reference to some of the hill
properties under their charge. As a preliminary operation, blasting for
specimens of the the quartz cropping out OS Amblakande and other
estates in the Dolosbagc district is now being carried on, and the
resulting specimens will be laid before Mr. Smyth, who, if he considers
them favourable, will be asked to visit and report on the district. In
other directions practical steps have been taken of much importance.
Mr. A. C. Dixon has been sent to the Sabaragamuwa (Rakwana) district on
a mission connected with the prospecting for gold as well as gems. It
is not unlikely that this enquiry may eventuate in the Ratnapura ("City
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