Mines and Mineral Statistics. 
83 
At tlie Buteliart Tin Mine, next to the Inverell Tin Mine, near 
Cope’s Creek, a quantity of fine lumps of solid tin ore -were obtained 
from tlie cap of a load. One of these pieces weighed o7 lbs. The ore 
is of the black variety, and, excepting a little quartz, is very free from 
foreign matter. An assay of it by C. Watt, of Sydney, gave 76 per 
cent. tin. 
The tin ore at the Bolitho Mine (generally called “ Simoni’s”) runs 
in irregular veins through a felspathic dyke about 18’ inches wide, and 
dipping nearly vertical. Occasionally these veins of ore unite, forming 
an almost solid mass of ore, and again thin out and are lost for a time. 
Several large blocks of the veinstone — one weighing nearly half a ton — 
were raised, the greater part of which consisted of tin ore. These 
large specimens may now be seen, I believe, at the ofiices of Messrs. 
Beilby & Scott, Sydney. 
A vein of solid ore, 4 inches thick, has been opened in the Boundary 
Tin Mine. Bluer spar occurs in this lode, and also a greenish-yellow 
■steatitic clay. 
A dyke of euritic granite, bearing E. 15° jS^., containing tin veins, 
has been discovered at the Bismarck Tin Mine, south of Cope’s Creek. 
The tin ore is associated with quartz veins, from a mere string to 
3 inches thick, and ti'aversing the dyke in various directions, forming 
a sort of network of veins. 
The ore is usually crystallized in square prisms, lining the sides of 
the fissure, with the quartz filling the centre ; sometimes, however, 
the wlioie vein makes into quartz, with separate tin crystals scattered 
through it. 
Mr. Bush, the assayer at Tiongha, kindly gave mo some fine crystals 
of quartz which he obtained from the Albiou Tin Mine, Cope s Creek. 
These crystals are studded on the outside as well as within with 
black crystals of cassKeriie, suggesting that the tin and silica were held 
in solution, and that they both crystallized therefrom at the same 
time. Specimens of these 1 have placed in your Geological Museiun. 
About 2 miles N.E. from Captain Swinton’s station are several 
small tin lodes, associated with veins of quartz and eurite, and traversing 
in an E.N.E. direction soft red granite. 
Other similar small tin lodes occur in various parts of the Cope’s 
Greek district. 
On the Bow-yard gully, between Tiengha and the Grove Station, 
Messrs. Canning and Hutton have discovered a tin lode which difiers 
from the lodes above described, in its having a northerly strike ; but 
this mav be only a local variation, as it occurs in a broad belt of euritic 
granite, '^in which it may liave connection with other lodes. 
Hear the surface this lode is only a few inches thick, hut it increases 
to a width of nearly 1 foot, of almost pure tin ore, at a depth of about 
20 feet, where it is broken by a fault or slide. The ore has a loose 
granular texture, and sometimes occurs disseminated ingrains through 
the encasing rock, which consists of a whitish eurite much broken by 
joints. Eor a few inches on either side of the lode the rock shows 
alternate vertical layers of quartz and felspar. This feature I have 
once before noticed in a tin-bearing reef which I discovered near 
Middle Creek. i -u 
Splendid samples of tin ore, in large crystals of mby red, amber, 
and other colours, have been obtained from the surface soil at the 
