48 HATCH: THE KOLAR GOLD-FIELD. 



The plates are in three tiers, each 3 feet long and 4! feet wide^ 

 except the lower portion of the third plate which is narrowed off to 

 3 feet. Below the lowest plate there are two riffles which serve as 

 mercury traps. The plates are cleaned up daily ; but the chief clean- 

 up is once a week when the chuck-blocks 1 are removed from the 

 boxes and scraped or chipped on an amalgamating table. The 

 amalgam is carefully worked up with mercury, the iron chips derived 

 from the abrasion of the shoes and dies being picked out or removed 

 by the magnet. It is then taken to the silver-room where it is 

 ground up in a mortar with more mercury and finally squeezed 

 in chamois leather. The amalgam thus obtained contains about 

 43 per cent, of gold. It is weighed and locked up in the office 

 safe pending the monthly or bi-monthly consignments to England. 

 Once a month a general clean-up takes place, when the mortar- 

 boxes are thoroughly cleaned out, the worn dies and shoes replaced 

 and any other necessary repairs made. The staff employed in 

 the Mysore mills comprises a chief and two assistant reduction-officers, 

 whose duties consist in superintending the milling operations besides 

 cleaning-up, retorting and smelting the gold and general assay 

 work; 15 mill-men, who work four in each shift of eight hours in 

 the 120-stamp mill and one per shift in the 30-stamp mill; six oilers 

 and one fitter. With the exception of the four assistants to the fitter, 

 who are employed in making repairs, no natives are, under ordinary 

 circumstances, allowed inside the mills. This regulation has been 

 made in order to prevent amalgam-stealing which is very prevalent 

 on the field. 



A section of the new mill now being erected on the Champion 

 Reef property is shown on plate 5. It is similar to the Mysore 

 mill, and consists of 120 stamps, in two lines of 60, face to face. 

 The stamps are heavier than at Mysore, being of 1,250 lbs., 

 and the feed-openings to the mortar-boxes are smaller in order 



1 The chuck-blocks are blocks of wood fixed under the screen frame, with a 

 curved inner surface to which an amalgamated copper plate is fixed. Most of the 

 gold is caught on this plate when inside amalgamation is practised. 



