Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-03-21
A MOUNTAIN OF GOLD.
Queensland the Seat of This Fabulous
Mrruai

4
dens at Babylon, the Colossus at
Rhodes, and other creations of the
genius and labor of man; but, COM
pared with these, the wonders of nature
known at the present day are as sew
enty times seven. and are found in ev-
cry part of this grand old earth. We
have read in fabulous story of noun
tains of gold; but we supposed that
such miracles of nature existed only in
the visions of poets and romanticists
However, it is known to many that a
veritable mountain of golden ore ex-
lists in Queensland, the sunny state of
the new Australian Commonwealth
This mountain is now being tunnelIed
and levelled, and it's stone crushed and
passed through chemical processes. In
one year over three hundred and twen-
tythree thousand ounces of pure gold
were extracted; and the value of the
mine once rose in the share market to
more than seventeen millions sterling,
Travelling in Central Queensland a
few months ago, curiosity induced us to
visit this mountain of gold, which is
situated about twenty-five miles from
the populOus city of Northampton.
The train by which we made the jour-
| Ivy dHo SolHc dlStdllCt liIouSn open
forest country, timbered mainly with
bloodwood, boxgums and iron bark
trees, and up very steep ridge called
the Razor Back to range of noun
tains stretching for miles from north to
south, where the air is cool and pleas
ant after the heat and dust of the city.
AS this famous mine is approached
great activity is apparent. A busy and
] l..
hotels, stores hospitals, churches, and
school of arts; and though some of the
buildings are roughly constructed; and
in the streets steep natural runnelS
and blocks of stone are likely to arrest
the progress of the unwary pedestrian,
there is a buzz of business and evil
dences of enterprise that augur we'll
for the future prosperity and shapeli-
ness of this mountain town. We heart
the changing of machinery. and occa-
sionally the sullen boom of a blasting
explosion: and the smoke from the fur
naceS and various peculiar chemical
odors make the atmosphere less bright
aud irVigorating.
On application at the office the man.
ager readily gives permission to go over
| the works; and after a change of dress
and payment of half a crown to a fund
| for the benefit of the miners. the WISH
| tors are provided with a guide, who
| shows them the process from start to
| finish by which the communicating
stone quarried from this remarkable
mountain is made to yield gold of the
| finest quality for the mint or the jew
| ellers workshop.
| In the immense tunnels made in the
mountain tier on tier, are men busily
at work blasting and hewing the stone
and loading it on trucks, which convey
| it to buckets that are lowered down
from one platform to another until the
| huge crushing machines are reached;
| then the ore is carried forward by
| trucks and buckets to the furnaces,
| where it is roasted and made porous
| for the Hall Richard chlorination
process. The ore is now placed in large
| barrels and treated with chloride solu-
| ton, under high pressure: and after
ward it is discharged into leeching
watts. fitted with sand and gravel filters,
| placed directly underneath. After be-
| ing repeatedly washed, it is finally
made to percolate through perforated
| board work covered with cheesecloth,
and next through a bed of charcoal.
| This precipitates the gold, and leaves
| it in shining heaps of fine dust on the
surface The whole process is full of
intense interest to the visitor The
grandeur and riches of nature are there
and also the science and ingenuity Of
man. More than C 100000 has been
spent on the machinery, the gigantic
dams for the storage of water, and the
workings; about eighteen hundred men
are constantly employed; and as the
mine is lit up with electricity, relays of
| miners continue the work day and
night.
| Mount Morgan is somewhat oval
shaped at the base, being about a mile
and a half at it's longest measurement
and half a mile at its shortest. 1t
rises almost precipitously from the
| banks of 4 small river called the Dee
| 20 the height of five hundred feet, and
attains at its domelike summit an alti-
| tude of 1900 feet above the level of the
| sea. There was nothing in The out
| ward appearance of the mountain to
! distinguish it from the other noun
| tains of the range; it had the same
rugged slopes and gullies, and the same
| shrubby vegetation covered its surface
as could be seen for miles around. The
| farming settler and the shepherd
4 wandering over this hlly region little
| dreamed of the treasure stored be-
meath. They would sometimes find
| alluvial gold in the ravines and
| creeks. and pick uD a boulder heavily
| weighted with the precious metal; but
| that there was a whole mountain of
| auriferous ore waiting to be exploited
by men of energy and enterprise never
entered their minds. The gold was
| carefully hidden in stone which, in
outward appearance, differed slightly
| from the ordinary metallic structure of
| the soil around.
| The discovery was made almost ac-
| cidentally. In the early days of SET
| Element in Central Queensland,
Scotch family named Gordon took up
] a selection on the slopes of the Razor
Back, and by additional purchases ex-
| tended their run down across creek
which divided the slopes from this
mountain. and partly uD one of it's
Sides They stocked their land with
| sheep and cattle, and endeavored to
| Wi, ix-iro hl1t had little