33 
Tlio returns from the Petek Downs Gold Field are very imperfect. For the first 
ntteeii years of the history of the field I can only find one record by the arden (of 
■f'lfiOO oz., escorted in 1807). It cannot possibly bo over the mark to fill up the blanks 
in the record as I have done by taking 4,000 oz. as the average annual yield from 1862 
to 1806 inclusive, and 3,000 oz. annually from 1868 to 1876 inclusive. The recorded 
returns, with these additions, give a total yield of 110,853 oz. of gold. Gold to the 
nmount of 6,294 oz. is returned as the yield of 12,461 tons of quartz crushed, but it 
“ust be remembered that Mr. Eands points out that the records of the earlier and 
richer crushings have been lost. 
Yield or Peak Dowks Q-old Pield. 
Year. 
1802-18GO 
1867 
1868-1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 
1880 
1881 
1882 
1883 
1884 
1885 
1886 
1887 
1888 
1839 
1890 
BKEF 
Stone 
Crushed. 
SOLD. 
Gold 
therefrom. 
AlluYial Gold. 
Total Gold. 
Tons. 
Oz. 
Oz. 
Oz. 
20,000' 
4,900“ 
27,000' 
3,000 
2,6733 
1,670 
2,330 ? 
4,000 
963 
528 
5,480 ? 
6,000 
2,293 
1,089 
6,311 P 
7,400 
2,545 
758 
6,718 
7,476 
1,211 
842 
5,158 
6,000 
484 
243 
2,757 
3,000 
652 
273 
2,993 
3,268 
213 
119 
3,545 
3.664 
746 
253 
4,104 
4,357 
486 
310 
4,108 
4,418 
124 
68 
2,277 
2,345 
71 
139 
1,947 
2,086 
1,939 
1,939 
Total 
110,853 
Remarks. 
^Estimated. 
2 Escorted. 
=Prom Macdonald’s Plat reefs 
alone. 
PEAK DOWNS COPPER PIELD. 
“ This lode was discovered in 1862. It can be traced for over li^ miles, running 
in an east-and-west direction. It has an underlie varying from 40° to 70° to the 
south. The country consists of foliated and contorted micaceous and hornblendic 
lists, dipping south-east. The outcrop is a gossan, consisting chiefly of red and brown 
lematite, with a little oxide of manganese, and carbonates of copper. The ores were 
0 X 1 es and carbonates of copper to a depth of about 75 feet vertical from the surface, a 
fixture of oxidised ores and sulphurets to a depth of 120 feet, and below that depth 
'ey were ordinary sulphurets of copper. 
^ ‘ The gossan at the surface was auriferous ; assays of it give from 4 dwt. to 
oz. 16 dwt. of gold per ton, and also up to as high as 5 oz. of silver per ton. 
d 1 , deepest workings were 66 fathoms. Most of the lode was taken out to a 
epth of 40 fathoms for a distance of half-a-mde. From 1862 to 1878, when the original 
oompany was wound up, about 100,000 tons of ore, averaging 17 per cent, of copper, were 
sme ted at the comjiany’s own works. That would give 17,000 tons of copper, the value 
01 which was over £1,250,000. Copper lodes, known as the ‘Western Peak Downs 
opper Lodes,’ exist about 7 miles west of Copperfield. Eieh sulphurets of copper 
^®re obtained from these.” (Bands’ “ Geology, &c., of Clermont.”) 
