The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-02-24
GOLD REGIONS OF AUSTRALIA.

GOLD REGIONS OF AUSTRALIA.
New Fields are Being Continually Dis
covered.
Although apparently the unlimited
character Of the auriferous resources of
western Australia continues to largely
monopolize public attention, it must not
be forgotten that the extent and pro-
ductiveness of the New South Wales,
Victorian and Queensland gold fields
remains unsurpassed, and likely to con-
tinue So In the former colony the rate
of production is steadily rising to the
highest level of the earlier years of gold
discovery, when all who could handle
the pick or spade were busily engaged
in the search for the precious metal
Native gold is the only true species of
gold which has so far been found in
New South Wales, and was first met
with in easily worked alluvial deposits
Alluvial diggings have always attracted
the greater number of miners, as the
precious metal is dug out without cost
ly appliances. But however rich they
may be, these deposits are very soon
worked out, for their area is generally
Of limited extent Although the alluvi-
al deposits discovered in the early days
have been practically abandoned and
are considered as worked out, there Is
ample evidence that the surface of the
country has been merely scratched, new
gold fields and fresh deposits being con-
tinually discovered in localities sup
posed to have been thoroughly exam
ined. The gold formation is very wide
~ diffused throughout the colony, as
may be gathered from the fact that the
gold fields of Albert, Delegate and Bal
lima are between six and seven hundred
miles distant from each other; and it
has been estimated that the extent Of
country covered by formations in asso-
citation with which gold always occurs,
exceeds seventy thousand square miles,
whilst the precious metal has also been
found In formations where its presence
was never suspected, A considerable
portion of this area, equal to nearly
one-fourth Of the whole surface of the
colony. has never been touched by the
pick of the miner. 1t is a Well-under
stood fact that many mines which gave
abandoned in the early days, simply be-
cause the appliances at hand were not
sufficiently powerful or well directed to
save the gold contained in the foreign
matter with which it was found associ-
ated At Waffle Flat, on the Turon
river and at many places on the older
gold fields, gold was found in deposits
| of pyrites, which have since proved to
| be in a very high degree payable; but
| these claims were abandoned some
years ago when apparently exhausted
the miners lacking the necessary
knowledge or skill to obtain from the
pyrites the whole of the gold they con-
| tanned. Improved methods of extrac'
ton have since been invented, and q
rich harvest awaits the skilled miner
who shall bring to bear upon the devel-
opment of this industry modern knoWl-
edge and appliances such as are being
successfully employed in other coun
tries. Sold is also found in quartz
veins, occurring in older and metamor
phic rocks, such as argillaceous states
cloritic and talcose schists, as well as
granite, diorite, serpentine and porphy
ry. Vein gold is associated more com
monty with iron pyrites, though fount
with copper, lead. zinc and silver ores
and also in asbestos. But the extrac
ton of gold from quartz veins requires
the erection of extensive machinery ant
goId-saving appliances, involving al
outlay of capital such as the ofdinar!
miner seldom possesses, Quartz min
irg is generally carried on by compa
MES. Gold has been found in the Goa
measures and in the carboniferous stra
ia. The Rev. w B. Clarke detected i
In the Hawkesbury sandstone forma
ton, on the north side of Sydney har
Dor, and he also mentions that it is dis
tributed through the sand at the moutl
of the Richmond river. Along tn
southern part of the coast of New
South Wales gold has been found nea
the shore, in the sand washed by tn
waves of the Pacific ocean; whilst a
Mermagui, and in the district extend
ing between MOryua and Eden, impor
tant discoveries of the precious meta
have also been made. 1t would be i'm
possible to name every part of the col
ony in which gold is found. as it ap
! pCctiS Tic SICctttt pat
the territory, and there is ample eVi
dence that there exist deposits whic
will offer to the prospector or the mine
profitable employment for many year
to Gomez The principal seats of alluyis
gold-mining are the Bathurst and Mud
gee districts, and the country watere
by the various feeders of the Uppe
Liachlan, and also in the Tumut an
Adelong and Braidwood districts. L
the north of the colony, in the Ne7
England district: on the coast, in TIL
county of Gloucester; and in the eS
IRENE northwest. at Mount POOL
Mount Browne and Tibooburra, tn
gold fields maintain considerable por
ulation of miners. The system of by
draulic sluicing is adopted in only tw
or three mines in the New England dis
trict; at Kiandra, on the southern ia
blelands, where extensive reservoir
have been formed, and the face of tn
rocks attacked in various places, g
Nelbothery, near Bombala. where til
Delegate River Hydraulic Sluicing CON
pany have erected machinery capabl
I If lifting 500 0O0 on Hons of wafer 70