The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-11-25

and miners pretend to tell from the
character of the gold of the placer as
to the nearness of the gold-bearing
rock from which it comes. If the gold
dust is very fine it is supposed to have
come long distance. If coarse it is
thought the lead is not far of. Some
of the first mining of California was of
gold scales which measured less than
1-16th of an inch in length and one
millimeter in diameter.
Placer miners usually find their
biggest nuggets in streams where the
powders are large. Where the
streams are fine gravel the gold is
generally fine aud scaly. The biggest
nugget ever discovered in this coun-
try was taken out of a mine at Carson
Hill, in Calaveras County, California.
1t weighed 1875 pounds and was worth
more than $4,000. A number of
other large nuggets were found in this
same region, ranging in value from
$1,000 upward. In 1855 a nugget of
gold was discovered in Sierra County,
CAL, worth $40, ,000,an in 1850 mass
of quartz and gold was picked up in
Tuolumne County which was worth
$50, 200. Outside of California some
of the largest Jumps of gold in the
United States have come from the
South. North Carolina has produced
three nuggets ranging in size from
thirteen and half pounds to thirty
seven pounds, and in Georgia o num-
Der of big nuggets have been discov-
cred, the largest of which weighed
1877 pennyweights.
Through the mining engineers
whom / have met here in the West and
information which has recently come
to the director of the mint at Wash
ington, am able to give some facts
as to the mines of Africa, which are
making such a change in the gold
product of the world. These gold
mines are surprise to seologists.
One famous man said he would have
rather expected to find gold IN the fens
of Scotland than IN the Rand District
of South Africa. William Weston, a
leading mining engineer of Cripple
Creek and graduate of the Royal
School of Mines of London, tells me
that he believes that the South Afri.
can gold deposits originally consisted
of the bed of great lake, which,
having been dried up and solidifed,
was by the action of the elements so
heaved up that it stood half on end.
The upper half Of this great gold de-
posit is now being mined, but as the
region is further developed the miners
will have to 60 deeper and deeper into
the, earth and the cost will be much
greater. As it is the prospects of an
enormous quantity of fgold from South
Africa are excellent.
Hamilton Smith, who is perhaps
one of the best mining engineers of
the world, and who was here not long
ago as the agent for the Rothschilds
to look up their American invest
ments, estimates that the Rand gold
district of Africa will produce billion
and quarter dollars worth of gold.
He says that gold has been found
there as far down in the earth as $500
feet. and that it exists in all probabil-
ity to depth of 5000 feet. Much of
the mining will have to be done at
this depth, and according to his esti-
mate it would take about So, 900, 900
to equip mine working at depth of
5000 feet. He expects the product OF
the African mines to exceed $50, 000,-
900 a year by the close of the century,
and he believes that they will be
profitable for years to come.
To-day all of the African mines must
be economically managed in order for
them to pay dividends. A great part
of the gold has to 60 back into the
mine in the shape of machinery and
LABOR, and up to the present only
about one-ffth of the gold gotten out
has been clear profit. There are now
in this African gold district
5000 white men and 10000 blacks.
Wages are low, and everything is done
on the largest and most economical
scale.
New mines are being discovered in
different parts of Australia, and re-
cent report to our director of the mint
states that the gold fields there have
hardly been scratched. Some of the
best mines of to-day are in West Aus
tralia, in district where there is lit
tie water. In the Coolgardie gold re-
gion, for instance, water sometimes
brings as much as twenty-five cents
gallon, as there are no great quanti-
ties of water within 800 miles of the
gold fields. There is great gold reef
in this district. 1t was discovered by
two young men, who found forty-fve
ounce nugget sticking out of noun
tain of quartz. They took a bag of
nuggets off single claim and came
back to their camp loaded with gold.
The Mercur mining district, south of
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