The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-29 00:00:00

MINERAL WEALTH OF SOUTH(

AUSTRALIA.
Intelligence to so recent a date as the 7th of October
has been received from Adelaide, by the overland mail.
A special survey of 20,000 acres has been secured by
the combined efforts of a number of the colonisto, who
have paid 20,000/., in terms of the last Act, for regu-
lating the sales of land in the Australian colonies. By
this purchase a district of that extent has been ob-
tained, singularly rich in copper ore.
We are particularly pleased that the enterprising co-
lonists, whose exemplary conduct we have had frequent
occasion to commend, have secured this rich prize. It
would have been a great pity if they had allowed it to
slip through their fingers, even although it had been
picked up by our friends, the Anstralian Mining Com-
pany. There is, we believe, enough for them in re-
serve; but they must seek it put, and must not grudge
those who have " borne the burden and heat of the day,"
enjoying the benefit of their own discoveries.
The purchase is very satisfactory, too, in another
respect. It would never have taken place if ;he Gover-
nor had made any reserve of the minerals. By the terms
of the Act he was authorised, in the case of special sur-
veys of 20,000 acres, to impose " such terms and condi-
tions as to him shall seem meet." We know little more
than the fact of the purchase having been made, the
money paid, and lodged by the Governor in the banks ;
but we have every reason to believe that the price was
twenty shillings per acre, and that certainly the abso-
lute freehold of the property has been obtained.
The value of the purchase cannot be estimated. We
have seen a very interesting report, from a scientific
gentleman, who accompanied thither some friends who
intended to take an interest in the special survey, from
which we extract the following account, which might be
supposed to be exaggerated, but which, on the contrary,
those who knew the writer rely on as a faithful and un-
questionable account of what he actually saw :
" INDICATIONS OF COPPER ORE.—Having walked over
the fketz' formation, we approached a hill which is al-
most detached from the main range, and, ascending it
from its south-west base, we quickly found ourselves
travelling over the older series of rocks, where quartz
and greenstone, with fragments of imperfect porphyry,
have been thrust up boldly through the old clay-slate ;
and there we saw, at almost every step, strong indica-
tions of the presence of rich copper lodes.
" These indications at first appeared to us in the shape
of spar, containing crystals of the azure-blue carbonate
of copper ; and, as we ascended higher up the hill. we
found numerous fragments of grey and green sulphuret
of copper attached to quartz and greenstone; ascending
still higher, we found a continuous outcrop of grey sul-
phuret of copper exhibited on the surface, averaging
about eighteen feet in breadth, and extending over the
brow of the hill, and down again to the south-eastern
base or gully, more than a mile in length.
" From this gully another hill arose, which was not so
much detached as the first one we inspected, but rather
appeared to be a spur from the main range ; and just at
the point of junction, where the above-mentioned exten-
sive outcrop of grey sulphuret cf copper disappeared in
the gully, we saw a broad and beautiful display of azure-
blue carbonate of copper, intermixed with quartz, crop-
ping out through the surface, and traceable for upwards
of two hundred paces, exposing an average breadth of
about fifteen feet.

" At this place we opened the ground about three or
four feet, and found the most favourable indications of a
large and regular lode being near at hand—abundance
of ' gossan' presented itself, and masses of spar, con-
taining highly crystalline carbonate of copper, were fre-
quently encountered.
" We then proceeded higher up the hill, and found,
at different elevations, three other distinct and well-
defined traces of ore : indeed the hills appeared to be
full of it !—almost every stone we picked up betrayed
either directly or inferentially the presence of rich copper
lodes. A fragment, struck off at random from the corner
of a large quartz boulder, exhibited no less than three
varieties of ore (the grey sulphuret, the blue carbonate,
and the copper pyrites) ; and we could scarcely move a
step without observing some kind of mineralogical evi-
dence indicating the proximity of metalliferous veins."
We are aware that in this country it is considered an
nofavourable symptom when metallic lodes crop out on
the orface of the ground ; but in South Australia it
is ot;:el yvi.se. Short as has been the experience of the
colonists ill. mining operations, it has been sufficient
to t;;sat this rule of judging does not
apply to the minerals in that country. The
party having visited the Kapunda mines on their
return to Adelaide, the same writer expressly states—
" At the Kapunda mines',. Where the outcrop of copper
ore was at first very apparent pn the surface, as usutnaltre
this country, the ground has .I.lr,eady been openedbeen found
depth of fifteen fathoms, and the :odes }:,
not only to increase in size and re,7u.l
al:e1 in richness and
ya,veas they go
e.iding more
deeper underground, but also to impi.e iliere is
at
one
ig-hteen feet
value, according to their depth." As
e,c.t.
place a continuous outcrop of metal,
1 nn ga t
ion about
of_
that
outcrop
thani
n breadth
is found, traceable for upwards of two hundred
paancoeish,eerxposing an average
reaa d tmilet i i eanledegasthOnantdavteevratt
breadth of about fiftoln feet;
if these, too, like those at Kapunda, shall improve in
richness and value, according to their depth, who Oen
estimate the value of that purchase?
At the time of the framing of the Act sth and 6tlr
Viet.. cap. 36, for regulating the sale of waste land
belonging to the Crown in the Australian colonies, we
believe that no man expected that the clause relative to
e blocks of unsurveyed land comprising 20,000 acres,"
would ever come into operation; it was regardbd as
providing for a contingency, merely possible, but in the
highest degree improbable ; yet it has already been
twice acted on, and measures, we understand, are in
progress for rendering it available a third time—another
company being in the course of formation for the pur-
pose of securing a special survey in some other rich
mineral district in South Australia. They must quioken

their motions.
The survey secured by the colonists lies beyond Ow
northern boundary of the county " Light," in lat. 33d.
40m. South, and long. 139 d. Bm. East, bearing from
Adelaide north by east, about 85 miles in a direct line,
or, by the route to which parties must travel, about 10 )
miles distant ; the road from Adelaide, however, being
for the most part over level ground, or gently undulating
country. It is not far distant from the Kapunda mines.
The emigration fund has now been replenished to an
extent beyond what the most sanguine of the friends of
South Australia ever anticipated in so short a time from
the passing of the last Act. But the sale of waste land
in the Australian colonies, under that Act, has been
almost entirely confined to South Australia. Surely, we
shall hear no mere of Lord Stanley's Bill No. 1, nor of
Mr. Hope's Bill No. 2, "to 11-serve to the Crown, for the
use of her Majesty," the minerals in these coionies.--
Colonial Gazettc.

We have recetvco ~.
Bun 's COMMERCIAL GLANCE.— • ving the
ods durini,
copy of this useful sheet of cotton statistics,
annual amount of exports of yarn and g
I ve to the present
five years,-1841-1845. Indeed, the an-nouale'`Nrts of yarn
3rlh.; in 1844 they were
are given in each year, from 1837 me "81 -$l, the last
time. Those of 1845 are 131,937.9inde.i_c0e
130,108,913!b. :The exports of p i g have increased
fivin 569,677,792 yards in 18440,
In printed and dyed capcm0e5,.......,,ii, ntoltil;el:e3'tll:lB;6l4msnYda,nithSeianralog4unsi
455 yards in 1844,, tC
of exports decreased fl,l4s.zn'' '
The chief sources of the a.'
31a0.,8550,:d7
s3:31;; in
those plain calicoes, are Chili an• J
and of
creased exports. of yarn are in the Hanse Towns, Holland.
P:er'uleeto which the exports have increased from 9,000,036
yards- to 20,000,000 yards in 1845); the foreign
.%%
e
Indies; China, Turkey and Levant, and the Unite
Statset n 44,
States. The sources of diminished exhorts in printed an
dyed calicoes, are Egypt, France, GibW: Car, Portugal an,f
Madeira, and Turkey and the Levant;'.''=
COAL.—In consequence of the advance in wages, and
the increasing demand for labour in the mining districts, at'
general rise in the price of stone coal and cum has taketV
place in this and the adjoining neighbourhoods. The att.(
vante was agreed upon at a meeting of coal owners belts t
short time 40,—Monmoditshire Afirlil,