Washbourne. — Minerals at Nelson. 351 



or loss, and it requires more knowledge and skill to make it a 

 profit. Money, labour, and skill are expended to mine ores 

 from the earth, and then they are treated in such a way that 

 perhaps the greater percentage of the metal for which they were 

 mined is lost. 



The feeling of uncertainty as to what to do with an ore, if 

 found, causes many good indications to be neglected. In Great 

 Britain, nickel ore is worked at an average of 2-3 per cent, of 

 nickel ; in Spain, at 3-96; in Canada, a 9-inch deposit, at from 

 3 to 4 per cent. ; and in Connecticut, a 12-inch vein, with a per- 

 centage of 2*2. The greater proportion of the nickel of com- 

 merce is derived from pyrrhotine. Yet on the Eichmond Hill 

 lease there is a vein larger than those mentioned, which, on the 

 surface, gives 2'98 per cent, of nickel — and this has not excited 

 enough interest even to cause it to be prospected. Mr. S. H. 

 Cox says of this vein : "As nickel is extracted from this ore in 

 New Jersey, United States, when only 3 per cent, is present, 

 this should prove payable, if the lode is continuous and suffi- 

 ciently large." I mention this case, as it is characteristic of 

 many others that will lie dormant until means are provided for 

 their proper economical treatment in the Colony. 



Briefly, the advantages of such works to mining would be 

 that much valuable mineral now thrown away would be profit- 

 ably saved ; many mines, abandoned or undeveloped, would be 

 prospected and profitably worked ; and large sums of money 

 now wasted for machinery on unproved mines would be saved. 



I believe that smelting works would be a good investment, 

 and could be profitably worked at the Parapara, if the requisite 

 capital and knowledge were brought to bear on it. If the pro- 

 prietors either treated the ore for so much per ton, or, perhaps 

 still better, bought the various ores, giving such a percentage of 

 the assay value as left them a sufficient margin of profit, a 

 supply of ores would soon spring up, and they would practically 

 have a monopoly of the business ; for, as they could treat ores 

 more cheaply than elsewhere, so they could give a better price 

 for them. In many cases the by-products would of themselves 

 give a good profit. The richmondite — even if we do not reckon 

 the 36 per cent, of lead, or the 22 per cent, of antimony — is a 

 good copper ore, and its 19 per cent, of copper should be a good 

 product, in addition to the silver. 



As most of the ores they would have to treat in New Zealand 

 would be sulphides, they should be able to make sulphuric acid 

 in treating them. This is an article much used for artificial 

 manures and other purposes ; and the colonial manufacture 

 would have an advantage from the difficulty of transporting it. 

 In England they import sulphide of iron from Spain for the sole 

 purpose of making this acid from it. But in the Parapara 

 District, sulphide of iron, containing from i dwt. up to as high 



