of reservoirs and conduits, at very heavy cost, which in many places
will have a permanent value long after gold-sluicing has ceased. These
large water-supply works are often in the hands of distinct parties from
the miners, the latter purchasing the water they use. To give an example
of the results attained in alluvial mining, it may be mentioned that in
a three-months' working in one Victorian district in 1888, over 33,500
tons of wash-dirt were treated for an average yield of 18-1/2 grains of
gold per ton, or, say, one part in 700,000. Where water cannot be
obtained recourse is had to a fanning or winnowing process for
separating the gold from the sand, which, however, is less efficacious.
[Illustration: Hydraulic Gold-mining.]
Vein-mining for gold differs but little from working any other kind of
metalliferous lode. When the vein-stuff has been raised it is reduced to
a pulverulent condition, to liberate the gold from the gangue. In some
cases roasting is first resorted to. This causes friability, and
facilitates the subsequent comminution. When the gold is in a very fine
state, too, it helps it to agglomerate. But if any pyrites are present
the effect is most detrimental, the gold becoming coated with a film of
sulphur or a glazing of iron oxide. The powdering of the vein-stuff is
usually performed in stamp batteries, which consist of a number of
falling hammers. While simple in principle, the apparatus is complicated
in its working parts, and is probably destined to give way to the
improved forms of crushing-rolls and centrifugal roller mills, which are
less costly, simpler, more efficient, and do not flatten the gold
particles so much. One of the most effective is that by Jordan. When the
vein-stuff has been reduced to powder, it is akin to alluvial wash-dirt,
and demands the same or similar contrivances for arresting the liberated
gold and releasing the tailings--that is, mercury troughs, amalgamated
plates, blanket strakes, &c.; but, in addition, provision is made for
catching the other metalliferous constituents, such as pyrites, which
almost always carry a valuable percentage of gold. These pyrites or
'sulphurets' are cleansed by concentration in various kinds of
apparatus, all depending on the greater specific gravity of the portion
sought to be saved.
Of the metals and minerals with which gold is found intimately
associated in nature are the following: Antimony, arsenic, bismuth,
cobalt, copper, iridium, iron, lead, manganese, nickel, osmium,
palladium, platinum, selenium, silver, tellurium, tungsten, vanadium,
and zinc, often as an alloy in the case of palladium, platinum,
selenium, silver (always), and tellurium. The methods of separation vary
with the nature of the ore and the conditions of the locality.
TREATMENT OF ORE AND GOLD IN THE TRANSVAAL.
The method of treatment of ore and gold in the Transvaal, the most
perfect and effective known at the present time, has thus been described
by Arthur Stenhouse:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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