The Gold Mines of the World: Containing Concise and Practical Advice for Investors Gathered from a Personal Inspection of the Mines of the Transvaal, India, West Australia, Queensland, New Zealand, British Columbia and Rhodesia

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Waterlow and sons, limited, 1899 - Gold mines and mining - 317 pages
 

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Page 6 - The average mine manager, whether in South Africa, or India, or Australia, or wherever I have met him, is an extremely capable man. Of course, there are exceptions — some managers are not capable; some are not even honest, but, as a rule, those in actual charge of our gold mines to-day are men who can be relied on, but I do not wish to confine my praise to the managers only. The mine captain, whose valuable qualities are known more to the manager than to outsiders, is usually a most capable man,...
Page 23 - Witwatersrand — a series of banket beds nearly forty miles in length ; unlimited, apparently, in depth ; and payable over the greater part of the entire area.
Page 76 - Reef, cutting the lode in almost every case, and further companies were floated and financed in the same lavish manner. In 1893, by far the deepest borehole yet sunk, struck the reef a long distance below the then boundary of the Simmer and Jack mine, at a depth of 2,385 feet. As the engineers of most of the already floated deep-level mines estimated that the reef would run out of their ground at a depth of not more than 2,000 feet...
Page 34 - ... ore-sorting has made great strides on the Rand. Large revolving tables and belts have been erected. Over these the rock, after sliding down the grizzleys or screens, slowly passes. Streams of water play upon it, cleansing it and showing clearly to the sorters which is ore and which is waste. At some mines 20 to' 30 and even 40 per cent, of the whole quantity is sorted out as being valueless. The mines employing this careful system of sorting are distinguished by their better comparative profits...
Page 112 - The past history of this mine entitles it to the position of one of the notable gold mines of the world. Briefly described, the mine consists of a wide reef of quartzite, dipping at 45 degrees, and carrying one main chute of rich ore which has been proved to 1,500 feet on the incline. In many places, notably on levels 7, 8 and 9, the chute ore has been of exceptional richness, perhaps averaging 2 ozs. per ton, and of a dimension of 100 feet long, and 60 feet wide.
Page 212 - ... minute particles, rarely visible to the naked eye, but in a proportion decidedly profitable. Quarries lower down the hillside revealed a greater complexity in the deposited mass, but gold was still present in very similar proportion. The sides of the hill spread out and formed a shell of non-goldbearing rock, down the centre of which the great patch of gold ore continued. How, it may be asked, did this great mass of goldbearing material come to appear in such a unique form ? After exhaustive...
Page 122 - Sd. per day ; but the ordinary hammer or stope native does not get through half the work of a Rand Kaffir, and to secure even this, close supervision is needed.
Page 208 - ... district. In the opposite direction, and sloping at a much steeper angle, is a series of well-defined white quartz reefs. These reefs carry no gold, except where they cut through the slate-beds, but at those points the precious metal is invariably found not only in profitable, but in visible quantities. So common a feature indeed is visible gold at Gympie, that each mine is provided with a strong box, which from time to time becomes filled with particularly rich and nuggety specimens. Mount Morgan,...
Page 7 - ... shareholders in every mine owe a debt which they do not realise, and which is often inadequately acknowledged. Amongst these men — I could give hundreds of examples — there is the greatest sense of duty to their employers, and from one year's end to another, by day and night, in the bush, on mountain tops, in fever swamps, in wild and deep places all over the world, they faithfully carry through their arduous work, and materially help to swell the golden stream that is ever pouring into London...
Page 76 - ... deep-level mines, the Gold Fields Deep Proprietary Co., Ltd., was formed, its finances being guaranteed by the Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa, Ltd. The promoters of this great undertaking, which involved the sinking of millions of capital, were rewarded in 1895 by the finding of the reef on the dip of the Meyer and Charlton Mine in the centre of the Rand at the great depth of 3,251 feet. This was then the deepest borehole ever sunk in the Transvaal, and was held to prove that sufficient...

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