Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-10 00:00:00

AN ENGLISH CALIFORNIA.

The idea seems a strange one, but it is true not With.
standing, The world listens with intense interest to' the
operations on the banks of the Sacramento, without know-
ing that the same operations are going on upon the banks
of the Weaver. Not that the Weaver ie a metalliferan
river; its province is to receive, not to provide, the pre=
clone metal. This it is doing is such a manner as to give
promise of results worthy the most serious attention of the
country. What is now doing to impart all the interest,
and everr more than the interest and attention which
attachss to the gold seeker in California, which to the
commercial man, or those more immediately connected
in the monetary proceeding of the country. What is now
doing is of an especial interest which' cannot be overrated.
The operations to which we refer are those carried on
near the town of Prodsham, in Cheshire. The rock '
operated upon is in part brought from North Wales, so
that the gold extracted is, in every sense of the word,
English gold; but a very material part of their operations
are upon rock, brought from America—from districts long
celebrated for- the riches they contain—but which are not
washed on the spot from the impossibility of finding labour
and fuel in sufficient quantities to make the operation pro-
fitable. The cheapness of water carriage suggested, the
idea of bringing the ore to be reduced in this country. The
result has been to establish,. as I have observed, a California
in England.

About three • years ago, an English company, called
" The Chancellorsville Freehold -Mining Company," pur-
chased an estate in the very best part of the quartzose
auriferous distaict.. The estate in question is situated near
Chancellorsville, in Virginia, near the river Rappahanock.
From this place the rock is conveyed straight to the wharf
of the company, on the Weaver. These works are actually
on the banks of the river.

The first cperation is to supply by art what nature has
done without art at the Antipodes. The labourof crossing
the ocean is exchanged for much less expensive and simpler
toil. It is imported in casks, in fragments about the size
of a man's fist. After having been twice calcined,. Dame
of the rock is reduced toe coarse powder, some to a sort of
ashes, and the rest, which consist of pieces more or less
entire, are whitened, and extremely .friable. The matter
is then placed under the operation of the stamping en-
gine, which reduces it>to somewhat of the state of sea, sand,
the particles of quartz, being still perfectly visible. Some
portion, however, is reduced to a fine powder. To obtain
this, the reduced quartz is ca-rigid to an artificial stream
with fivetanks. The coarser powders are, of course, first
deposited. The finer are carriedon into the further tanks.
Those of the two last tanks are sufficiently fine to need no
further reduction, those in the first are subjected to a
second grinding process, which is done by a moderate
sized, roller rotating in a trough lined with iron, which
reduces the matter to the required fineness. It then
becomes an impalpable brown powder. In this state, being
shaken in a shove/ .with a little water, :the goains of gold
become-distinctly visible.. The process then commences
of extracting the gold. This is done by the chemical
process of smalysation- with quicksilver. The
dust is Owed in an enclosed wooden trough
—a stream of water carries it into an amalgamator,
and in the passage it is subjected to magnetic action ; a
series of about twenty rows of magnets;' each row con-
taining about ten separate magnets, is caused to revolve
above the current. The object of this is to take up the
iron, which is mixed up with the matter ; the original rock
containing a large quantity of iron pyrites, and iron in
other forms. The. residue flows icto the amalgamator,
which contains a quantity of quicksilver, which takes up
the gold. The gold is then obtained from the amalgam by
the ordinary processes.
It is the pyritous part of the rock which is commonly
the most valuable. The rock, in, situ, consists of a talcose
slate, sometimes of a deep red colour, but more commonly
of a pale blue. A good deal of silver and iron is combined
in the mass. The rock is usually, soft and friable.

We introduce this subject at the present time because,
on Saturday, decisive trials were made by Mr Harris, the
company's manager, in the presence of many commercial
and scientific gentlemen, including Mr. Henry, and
Mr. G. F. Ansell, of the. Royal Mint. On this occasion
the produce of gold from one ton of the American ore,
taken from a large quantity on the company's premises
was I oz. 1 dwt 7 grs. ,