The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-08-19
DREDGING FOR GOLD
o. M. RICE, OF BRISBANE. AUSTRIA
Liza, INTERESTED IN CANA
DIAN DEPOSITS
VISITS ST. PAUL GOING HOME
While in His Native Southern
Country MI. Rice WI Form
a COnipahy to Mine
in Canada.

Q. M. Rice, offs Brisbane, Australia, was
III ST Paul for few hours yesterday
on his way from Edmonton, n. w T..
to New Orleans, where he viii join
his brother, naturaIized American, and
the two viii spend the next six mont hS
in Australia. Mr.. Rice is interested in
a gold dredging plant on the Saskatche-
wan river, and has been for the past two
years working on certain stretches of
that stream for which he and the gen
tlemen associated with him have secured
from the Canadian government exclusive
rights to dredge
HIS apparatus Is analogous in design
to the standard machine of the kind in
use IN Australia He has, however, in
corporated some changes, neceSsitated by
the differences in the sand from which
the gold is obtained on the Canadian
a1luv1al deposits in the Saskatchewan
The process, in brief, is that the gold
laden sand is pumped through the dredge
and the gold obtained is separated in
transit, the sand going back into the
river In the Canadian river the gold
is found in more minute particles than
Is usual in Australia, and on this accoun
some notifications, in the process have
been incorporated
me gold which Mr. Rice has so far
encountered is what is technically known
as the flour variety, and it is far more
difficult to separate from the sand than
that usually found in Australia. At
first he feared that his enterprise was
doomed to absolute failure, but by con-
Inued experiments he hit upon the pro-
cess which he has been using for the
past year with gratifying results.
Mr.. Rice believes that there Is a great
future in store for the river gold de-
posfts in the Canadian Northwest Hith
cY~tO Inn "a ~ ~
cious metal from the beds of the rivers
in the whole of that district have not
been conducted upon scientific principles.
Much of the mfningD has been done by
Chinese, who EMPLOY such primitive
methods that unlessgthe deposits are Of
extraordinary vaiueI no returns can be
secured. White men have worked over
places and abandsnedEthem as exhaust ed,
When, as matter, of fact, a scientifically
built dredger -we5ltd take more gold from
these very PLACES than was ever OBJ
tanned by oldzfashiaaed methods which
have been in vogue 50 far.
While In Austgaliao Mr. Rice will en-
deavor to form a company for the bet
ter exploitation Al of the rivers of the
Northwest. TheaSeine river is one that
he has in mind more, particularly. He has
had no personal :, experience on this
stream, but from what he has seen taken
from. it by miners who know very little
about the proper methods to be employed,
he is of the opinion that handsome
returns await the man who will invest
enough money to go about the task in
an up to date manner
Large nuggets have been found in the
bed OF this Stream, and Mr. Rice thinks
that thorough study of the locality in
which most of these have been found
would result in the discovery of large
deposit of placer gold. He thinks that
the nuggets have been washed loose by
the current, and that a few of them
have been stumbled upon by those who
were washing in the good ola way which
obtained a hundred sEears ago.