8 Mineral Resources. 



erecting such stamping and amalgamating, and steam pud- 

 dling machinery, as would exhibit a large profit from the 

 working of materials scarcely yielding any profit with less 

 efficient means ; the preliminary arrangements have stopped 

 the working by the old proprietors, while scarcely any of the 

 companies have yet got to work. This explanation would 

 account for a very large deficiency in the official returns. As 

 an example of the amount of machinery being applied in 

 special [cases, and the actual result and profit of comparatively 

 poor, or as least ordinary average tracts, we may most 

 instructively refer to some details of the Clunes mines. 



In 1859, 21,202 oz. of gold, value about ,£84,808, were ob- 

 tained from the crushing of 21,078 tons of quartz, raised from 

 ftntr " reefs " rather below the ordinary average richness of the 

 worked gold reefs of the colony, and from reefs which, without 

 such machinery, and with the small " claims " formerly attain- 

 able, would have yielded no profit to the miner. The total 

 cost of extracting the gold,- including calcining, crushing, and 

 amalgamating, with somewhat expensive management, has 

 been in this case about 17s. per ton ; while the usual price for 

 crushing throughout the gold fields in 1856 was from £3 to 

 £4< per ton. The extensive application of such machinery to 

 the richer tracts taken up by the numerous companies now 

 formed will obviously enormously increase the yield of gold in 

 future years, even independent of the great increase to be 

 anticipated from extending operations into the tracts known 

 to be auriferous, though at present unworked. As a general 

 rule, the mechanical appliances now used in Victorian gold 

 mining would compare favorably with the best employed in 

 other countries. It is a popular mistake to suppose that very- 

 great improvements are expected or required in the techno- 

 logical part of gold mining ; the great room for improvement 

 being rather in the management and conduct of mining com- 

 panies, than in the appliances for extracting the gold. 



TIN. 



Tin is at present worked in any important quantity only 

 in the Ovens district, though it has been observed in the 

 upper branches of the Yarra, in the Coliban river, and a few 

 other localities. The amount annually exported cannot be 

 ascertained, as no duty is paid upon it ■* but in the year 1856 



* The quantity is always declared at the Customs, and may he assumed 

 as nearly correct. The returns of 1858 give 357 tons 17 cwt. of hlack sand, 

 valued at £19,596, and 1 ton 6 cwt. of tin, worth £100. 



