6 
Mines and Mineral Statistics, 
In a very large number of instances where the miners do not 
crush their own stone, tlie cost of carting and crushing amounts 
to about twenty-five shillings, equal to between six and seven 
dwts. of gold per ton, so that unless the stone is moderately rich 
it cannot pay for working. The miner has, however, not 
only to submit to the loss of the gold contained in the pyrites, 
and to pay, say six or seven dwts. of gold for having his stone 
crushed, but in many cases the battery is in the charge of a person 
who has no special knowledge of and experience in the reduction 
of quartz and the saving of gold, and all the various descriptions 
and qualities of stone are sub jected to precisely the same treatment. 
It would not, perhaps, be practicable for every company, nor for 
the owner of every crushing plant, to erect the apparatus requisite 
for the collection and effective treatment of pyrites, but it is highly 
desirable in the interest of mining tliat the pyrites should be 
saved, because if it were known that the miners were in the 
habit of saving them, a market would soon spring up in which 
they would be able to obtain nearly as mucli money from the 
sale of their pyrites as tliey would gain by simply extracting the 
gold from them, and tlie practice of saving these waste products 
would lead to the erection of works for the extraction and saving 
not only of the gold, hut also of the sulijhnr, ar-senic, i^c. 
The following brief extracts from tlie Eeport of the Board 
recently appointed in Yietoria to report upon the methods of 
treating pyrites andrqi\Titou.s vein-.stufis are submitted for the 
information ot those who may not have access to the report : — 
‘‘ It is decidedly better to crush quai’tz containing pyrites raw. 
ihe great majority ol Avitnesses are in faA'our of using Borlase’s- 
Concave Buddie Avith IMunday s Patent Scrapers for the purpose 
of separating the various descriptions of pyrites from the crushed 
material. An IS to 21 leet machine making seven or eight 
revolutions per minute is recommended. That it is absolutely 
necessary to roast ])yrites previous to amalgamation, and for this 
purpose reverberating furnaces, Avitli inclined hearths, are the 
best at present in use in A ictoria. That the introduction of 
combustible substances, such as charcoal, into the furnace with 
the pyrites is not advisable, and that attention should be given to 
the regular supply of fuel and to the proper regulation of the 
draught. That grinding the roasted pyrites in Chilian Alills, 
Arrastras, or AVhecler’s Pans, is consiclered the best mode of 
amalgamating. The Avitnesses arc said to be unanimous as to the 
absolute necessity of tboroughlj breaking up the quicksilver, in 
order that it may penetrate the stuff operated on and gather up 
all the gold brought m contact Avith it, but the very means which 
are^neces^sary to secure effective amalgamation give rise to a form 
ot fionred mercury bronglit about by mechanical (not chemical) 
action. The evil is said to be as great in this as in the case 
