The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-29 00:00:00

PORT PHILIP AND COLONIAL GOLD.

"The company have received advices from their resi-
dent director at Melbourne up to the 2241 of November
last. He states that the banks intended in future
sending borne assayed gold, and there was therefore a
chance of the assay-office coming into general use.
"Mining—According to the new arrangements about
extended claims, we should be entitled to 160 yards in
length of a creek,' irrespective of width.
"Tin Ore-6 tons 4 cwt. have bees shipped by the
Kent for London, to sail on the 2d of December.
" Cartago from the Ovens bad fallen from 201. to 121."
ENGLIM AND AUSTIALIAN MINING CoMFANT.

"Advicee from] the manager, Mr. Hamilton, have
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been received, dated Adelaide, the 28th of November
s
:w—ere lighted on
or about the 15th of November, and the refinery would
be lighted in December. At the end of this month we
hope to have 100 tons of refined copper. This quan-
tity will make all square with the Burra Barra Com-
pany up to the end of the year.
" Cartage.—We are doing very much better with
the cartage of ere than I could have expected two
month: ago ; we are carting—say of ore and coal toge-
ther--about 2,000 tons per month. We have about
1,600 tons of ore at the port ready for shipment.
" Ore.—Total stock on hand at date, 7,581 tons.
We shall receive from the mine at least 500 tons per
month, and shortly, when the large engine at the mine
is set to work, ores of a much richer quality than we
have bad for the last two years may be expected.
" Labour is more abundant in the colony, but fur-
nace-men are not to be bad at any cost. We could light
more furnaces, alai keep them going with coal, if we
had but a sufficiency of that kind of labour. Mechanics
make still very high wages, but the tendency is most
decidedly towards a reduction.
" Mules, as carrying animals, it is feared, will be a
failur,, but in waggons the mules were working remark-
ably well ; sufficient time, however, has not yet elapsed
to form a correct estimate of thier capabilities as beasts
of burden or draught.' "
" SOUTH AUSTRALIAN COPPER MINING COMPANY.
" Extract of a letter received from Mr. Basset, dated
Adelaide, November, 27.
`° `Mr. Robertson will give you the various assays he
had made in the process of disposing of the ore, and you
will see that this ore is actually worth, as broken, from
151. to 241. per ton. It must be borne in mind that,
however small the quantity of gold, it will be nearly all
profit, as the expense of its extraction from the silver
with which it associates itself is most trifling.
We have sent down 100 tons of ore, and we have
about another 100 nearly ready, besides 50 or 60 on the
floors, but requiring bucking and sampling. This is from
not much more than a month's actual working, and com-
paratively but few hands (certainly not more than ten
men) r,ere employed in actually breaking it.
" 'Our smelting experiments have, I regret to say,
been a comparative failure, but I shall be always endea-
vouring to meet with a practical lead smelter to put us
right. Since my last we completed the cross cutting of
the lode in the bottom, as I wrote you we were then
doing. The lode was there about 14 feet wide, solid
rnundic of most promising character. In doing this we
brought the water in so strongly upon ua, that it was
useless to attempt to keep it any longer with the hand
engine, and I therefore discontinued sinking until the
engine was finished. The engine-house is completed i
and just roofed in ; the engine s erected and ready to
go to work. We are now only waiting for the boiler and
a lift of smal work. When these are up here we
have only to put them in and go to work immediately.
With the engine at work, the difference of our costs of
productions will be very great. The water charges
would be greatly reduced by the engine, as well as the
expenses of hauling, and the grinder would do for a few
shillings what at present costs as many pounds while
breaking by band.'
" Mr. Robertson states, in reference to his essays,
that certain ores, valued at 2,0141. at Port Adelaide,
have been sold, and that arrangements were making for
sending down continual supplies to Adelaide. The cost
of cartage from the mines to Adelaide was 3/. per ton."