40 HATCH : THE KOLAR GOLD-FIELD. 



per cent, of the whole outturn, goes direct to storage-bins having a 

 capacity of i ,000 tons (see PI. 19), whence it is conveyed in 4-ton 

 trucks, drawn by a locomotive, to Rouse's sorting floors. The ore 

 hoisted at Tennant's shaft is also brought to Rouse's floors by the 

 locomotive. That raised at Rouse's shaft is discharged direct from 

 the skips over the grizzlys on to the sorting floor ; while the trucks 

 hauled up Crocker's incline shaft are brought up to the tipping 

 platform by a small independent hoist. Only the ore delivered at 

 McTaggart's shaft is screened at the shaft-head, the coarse stuff 

 being brought to the sorting floors, while the fines are taken direct 

 to the mill. After screening, sorting and breaking at Rouse's 

 floors both fines and broken ore are trammed to the mill in one-ton 

 trucks drawn by bulls. At the old mill they are hoisted up an 

 incline, while at the new mill they are raised to the bin-floor by a 

 vertical steam-elevator. The method of raising the ore to the top- 

 floor of the mill by means of an inclined track is shewn on plate 17. 

 Screening, ore-sorting and preliminary crushing.— The amount 

 of waste rock sorted out from the ore on the Kolar gold-field is 

 comparatively small. As yet no labour-saving appliances have 

 been introduced for that purpose. The mode of procedure in vogue 

 at the Mysore Mine is briefly as follows. The ore brought to the 

 sorting floors is tipped over a screen or grizzly, the bars of which are 

 set at about 1^ inches apart. The heap of coarse ore is then picked 

 over by natives, the pieces of clearly recognizable waste being 

 thrown into waggons going to the waste-heaps; while the pay-ore 

 is carried in baskets to the rock-breakers of which there are 4 (Blake- 

 Marsden pattern). The sorting arrangements at the sorting floors 

 are sketched in fig. 5- The floors are closed in and careful 

 supervision by white overseers is exercised in order to prevent 

 stealing of rich specimen-ore. The cost of sorting and tramming 

 from the floors to the big mill is 2 annas 4 pies per ton of ore milled. 



