The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-08 00:00:00

GOLD WORKS IN ENGLAND.

(Prom. the Times.)
People who know only of gold in nuggets, and
who are accustomed weekly to read of the arrival
of half-a-million in ounces from Australia, may be

surprised to hear of works for the crushing of gold
quartz being established in England. Neverthe-
less, such is the fact, and in a remote corner of Che-
shire—pregnable only to firm railway tourists—an
establishment exists, not only for the convers'on of
American quartz into ounces and ingots of the pre-
cious metal, but which purposes to extend its auri-
ferous researches among the mountains and quar-
ries of England. The Chancellorsville Company,
as it is called, has been at work now only for a short
period, though long enough to found a tolerably
intensive factory, if we may so term it, where all
the various processes necessary to the production
of the circulating medium from exceedingly dirty
looking stones goes on daily. The material upon
which up to the present they have tested their
powers has been Virginian quartz from a gold-bear-
ing district in the United States ; but they intend
to venture upon experiments with the English
rocks, which, if successful, may lead to important
results. To prove the facility and cheapness with
which gold might be extracted from the American
quartz a number of scientific gentlemen and others
interested in the result of the scheme were invited
down to the works on Saturday, with a view
to a public exhibition of the whole modes operandi,
and of course a display of its anticipated profits.
Frodsham, as some of our readers may know, is
rather an out-of-the-way place, a long, lazy-
looking town, with no particular interest in itself,
or apparently in anything else either. A third
crew would be a source of excitement, and, of
course, under such circumstances the new gold-
works are by no means over-looked, but form the
staple of comment and conversation throughout the
little town. The visit of a large party of gentle-
men especially to inspect them and their results on
Saturday will by no means tend to allay this grow-
ing interest, which seems fast leading to the belief
that Frodsham is to be at once the Bendigo and
California of the Old World. In order that our
readers may not be led into so grievous an error,
we shall at once inform them of the processes now
going forward at Frodsham, their present results,
and (on the part of the company) future intentions
and anticipations. The works are now solely en-
gaged in crushing American quartz, or perhaps, we
may say ore, in which the gold is found. To those
troubled with vague ideas as to gold being always
picked up, and realised with little labour and no
capit this account of its " manufacture" from
quartz will at least le new, if not interesting.
The ore on which the Chancellorsville Company
work is quarried from an extensive mine belonging
to the company in Orange County, Virginia, a
short distance from Fredericksburgh, and which is
brought over to this country as ballast. When de-
livered on the wharf of the works at Frodsham its
cost is nearly 30s. per ton. It is a coarse amor-
phous quartz, not unlike rock salt in appearance,
but largely intermixed with auriferous and argen-
tiferous pyrites. This is first calcined in an ordi-
nary kiln to partially free it from sulphur, and as-
sist the process of crushing, which it subsequently
undergoes from the stompers, after being broken
into smaller pieces. The stampers used at Frodsham
are ordinary Cornish ones, of the most primitive
form, and such as have been in use throughout. Corn-
wall and Devon for many years. It is said that
these do the work better than either Jones's, Ber-
dan's, or Britten's quartz-crushing machines, which
certainly seemi singular; but what, perhaps, is more
remarkable is that ordinary mill-stones,—in fact, a
common flour-mill will, it is alleged, crush it baiter
than any. Close to the Frodsham works stands an
extensive flour-mill, which 12 tons of the quartz
have been gr iund finer than anything done by the
stampers and crushing machines in the same period
of time.. The s ones Issed were the ordinary chert
or millstone grit, as it is called, and the millers
aver that this work wore them less than even grind-
ing Indian c'_rn. It must be remembered, however,
that the quartz is ca'c!ned before it reaches the mill,
though, even making this allowance, it seems
rather a snub to our mechanical progress to have

in the 19th century to revert to a 'intake as old as
mankind itself. The machine used at Frodsham has
twelve 7 cwt. stampeis, which crush the quartz to
the conslstency of a coarse sand at the rate of rather
more than a ton per hour, or about 20 tons per
day. There is, however, already sufficient steam
power on the premises to crush 50 tons-daily if the
supply is forthcoming. From the stampers the
crushed quartz flows with a stream of water into a
series of " slime pits," labyrinths of narrow pipes
at the entrance of which the particles of gold sink
according to their specific gravity. From these it
is shovelled up with the other matter with which it
is mixed and placed on the "shaking table," a long
platform of wood fixed tinder a small ream of
water, and which by an alternate rise and fall allows
the greater part of the extraneous substances to be
washed away. Only a dark coloured sand, contain-
ing particles of quartz, gold, silver, copper, and
iron, remains on the table, whence it is removed to
undergo the process of fine grinding, which reduces
it to an impalpable powder as soft as flour, and not
unlike it, save that it glitters with minute specks
of metal. It is again calcinced in a reverberatory
furnace (to drive off the remains of sulphur), which
is so constructed as to prevent the metallic particles
of gold and silver passing up with the draught.
Shafts are attached to the furnaces in which the
sulphur and any metals that may have volatilised
are deposited, and the yield from the former appears
to be large. As the ore thus roasted a second time
is found to contain a proportion of other metals it
is thrown when heated into a bath of mineral acids,
by which the copper, &c., is dissolved, and
afterwards precipitated in the usual manner. For
rt asons of economy muriatic acid is used, though
the saving is rather in appearance than in fact, as
the chlorine in the acid must naturally dissolve a
portion of the gold also, and to that extent diminish
the yield per ton. The auriferous powder which
remains is finally passed through a stream of water
under a wheel containing 550 magnets, which re-
volves at the rate of 15 times a-minute. This frees
it from much iron, yet, as it is done to prevent the
iron entering with the gold and interfering with
amalgamation, it is simply ridiculous, as the merest
tyro in chemistry ought to know that between iron
and mercury there can be no combination. The
magnets are, however, useful for a duty which they
were never intended to perform—namely, pressing
out the arsenuret of iron. What remains flows
into. an amalgator, in which the mercury and ore
are agitated together, the a,clivity of the former be-
ina quickened occasionally by jets of steam passed
through* it. After a given time the mercury is re
moved and placed in a retort, where it is distilled
into water, leaving only a geld button containing a
little silver behind. On Saturday nearly the whole
of this process was gone through on a small scale at
Frodsham. A ton of the quartz was crushed, cal-
cined fine, ground, magnetised, and amalgamated,
and the yield was 1 ounce 7 pennyweights 7 grains
of puregodl, or very nearly an ounce and a half per
ton.

It is but fair. to state that the experiment
was tried upon one ton of quartz which had been
shovelled up hap-hazard from a mass upon the
premises. The average yield of the Virginian ore
is stated to be 14 ounces per ton. It is very rarely
leis than this, and sometimes more. Half an ounce
per ton, if worked upon the spot where the quartz
is found, would pay all expenses, and even with the
works at Cheshire and the mine in America Loz.,
if the supply is continuous and the works well
managed, should give a fair remuneration. Twenty
tons per diem are now reduced at the Frodsham
works, at a cost in coals for amalgamation, loss of
mercury, labour, sundries, and wear and tear of
machinery, of 17s. per ton, which, with the origi-
nal price of the ore, raises it to 2/. 7s. The local
facilities afforded at ,Frodsham are very great ; la-
bow is cheap, there is water, carriage by the river
Weaver to the very door of the works, and coals
can be had at 6s. per ton delivered. Under these
circumstances there can be no doubt that crushing
auriferous quartz which yields lioz. per ton ought
to give a profit. It must, however, be shown posi-
tively that the supply of ore from. Virginia can be
reckoned upon as regular and large in quantity.
But this remains to be proved. The company,
however, have two strings to their bow, and do not
intend to confine their quartz-crushing to Virginian
ores solely, but will also try the auriferous quartz
which is foundlabout Dolgelly, and generallyround
the base of Snowdon. A few small specimens of
these quartz were shown at Frodsham, which are
as rich as they are rare, and which if found in large
quantities would yield, it is calculated, 1,500 ozs.
per ton. But, of course, these pieces are only curl-
ositiesfer the cabinet of the mineralogist. Never-
theless it is thought that auriferous quartz may be
found in North Wales at least as rich, if not richer
than the ore from Virginia, which, of course, could
be brought to the works at Frodsham at less than
the price now paid for that from America.
This is by no means the first time that attempts
have been made to extract gold from the Welsh
quartz,. though whether from mismanagement or
tt,e intrinsic poverty of the matrix, not one of
`he schemes has
No do as yet proved remunerative.
doubts whatever exists as to the auriferous
nature of
the soil and rocks of Wicklow, and
for some time the Government mining energ
into that channel. The result
was gold certainly, but gold at the rate of
per oz
5/. and 61.
iimlt must, however, be recol-
lected that at that
bee
time
machinery was un-
known, and that at
ever celebrated for the skill' or wecaosn oxy with Governmentwhich
they could compete against privatc speculation.
to produce
About two years ago a company batted