Evening star., 1901-05-18
The Country is Enormously Rich in
GoldlDeposits.
NUGGETS as BIG As FOOT BALLS
What One Sees on a Visit to the
Ba||arat tDiggings.
COMING SOV EIG n S
. Copyright, 1901, by Frank G. Carpenter.l

Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
BALLARAT, Australia.
In the heart of one of the chief mining
districts of Australia, within a stones
throw of where the welcome nugget,
lump of gold as big as a foot ball, was
found, surrounded by the smokeStacks of
quartz mills, l write of the gold of Aus
tralia. Under the very floor of my hotel
rich deposits of gold have been mined.
every bit of earth in sight has been run
again and again through sieve to wash
out the precious dust it contained, and the
valley for miles above and below me has
been horeycombed with diggings. Today
thousands of men are burrowing here
through the bowels of the earth, the best
of modern machinery is taking out and
hoisting the ore to the surface, and it is
even said that the water in some of the
deepest mines contains gold. One story is
told of how several barrels of water were
hermetically sealed and sent away to
Paris. They were kept there for years,
and when opened were discovered to have
preciptated several gold nuggests. AS to
the truth of this do not vouch.
The Big Gold Nuggets of Australia.
There is no doubt, however, about Aus
tralia S production of enormous gold mug
gets. The greatest of them was found
shortly after the discovery of gold, away
back in the fifties. 1t had long been known
that there gold in Australia, but it was
not until 1851 that Hargraves, an Austria
liam, who had visited California, an
nounced that there was gold here in pay
ing quantities. The first of it diScov
cred in water hole in New South
Wales. and month later it was shown
that every creek for seventy miles had
gold. Later on the placer mines were
opened up at Ballarat and from them
came some of these enormous nuggets.
One of the first nuggets weighed 10l
pounds, another 9S pounds, and the "Wel
come 1S4 pounds and nine ounces, or as
much as a good-siZed man. There are
models of these nuggets in the various
mining museums of the Australian capt.
tails. | have seen them in Queensland, in
New South Wales and Victoria, and also
in the mining schools here. The Wei
come nugget measured twenty inches in
length, twelve inches in breadth and seven
inches in thickness. 1t was sold in Mel
bourne for $4,000 Five months after it
was discovered another nugget was dug
up which was sold for $50, ,OO0 and later on
weighed 1S9 pounds. and was valued at
$4,000. In 1853 a lump of gold worth
$4,000 was found in New South Wales,
and early in the eighties a number of mug
gets were discovered, some of great value.
So far, California has the record of pro-
ducing the largest nugget. 1t weighed 1875
pounds and was taken out of mine in
Calaveras county. The Welcome nugget
was found at depth of 1S0 feet but most
of the others were nearer the surface.
Placer Mines VS.. Quarts.
Altogether $3.50, 900 600 worth of gold have
been taken from the earth about Ballarat
and it is estimated that out of this state
OF Victoria alone the product has been
81 go 100000 At first all of the gold was
alluvial. At present the most of the min
ing is quartz mining, and some of it Is very
deep. There are d number of mines that
are below 1000 feet and the South Star
is mining at a depth of $500 feet. There
are twenty mines here which have paid out
more than 100000 in dividends on an
original investment of less than So, 500, 600.
The mines in Victoria are economically
less than three pennyweights to the ton
There is one mine in Victoria which aver
aged only an ounce of gold to every six
and one-half tons of last year, and
Notwithstanding this paid $4,000 in divi-
dends. Among the incidents of economical
management are seven mines which have
netted 131 per cent on their paid up capital
stock.
Some of the most remarkable mines of
this state at Bendgo, Sandhurst,
about hundred miles from Melbourne
where the gold fields yield about million
dollars a year. The mines are very deep.
The Lansell mine is already down 1852
feet and it is going lower. There are
eleven other mines more than 2,40O feet
deep and of these five have a depth of
over 5000 feet. They are being worked at
a profit, and it is thought that the heat
will not be too great at a depth of 1000
feet. Bendigo has already produced about