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REPORT ON ALLEGED DISCOVERY OF PHOSPHATE OF 
ALUMINA NEAR THE GREAT RAND MINE, HOWQUA 
RIVER, COUNTY OF WANNANGATTA. 
By A. M. Ho witt. 
Specimens of a rock from near the Great Rand Mine, Howqua River, 
were analyzed by the Department of Mines, and found to contain about 
15 per cent, of phosphoric anhydride in combination with alumina, &c. 
Mr. Jennings, who found the specimens, informed me that he was led 
to the discovery by observing the similarity of some of the Flannery’s 
Hill phosphates to some rocks he had once seen near the mine. 
At the Great Rand Mine I found that the loose specimens had been 
picked up oar the side of a gully about 45 chains south-east of the mana¬ 
ger’s quarters, and that a trench had been cut which failed to expose any 
phosphatic rock, or the beds usually associated with it. The rock near 
the find is an intrusive amphibolite, and on the western side of the gully 
there are outcrops of blue slates, sandstones, and a crushed formation of 
.slate and quartz, from which I obtained a graptolite (Monograptus), which 
indicates that the slates are Silurian. 
Southwards on the range, and at the head of the gully, 1 could see 
no fresh formations, but noted that the amphibolites, being very rich in 
hornblende, have been converted into serpentine, and at one point contain 
asbestos veins. 
As there was nothing to indicate where the phosphatic rock could have 
come from, my examination had so far proved unsatisfactory; and I 
formed the opinion that the specimens had been carried to camp by some 
prospector or miner in the past. 
I described the cherts associated with the phosphates at Mansfield and 
Tatong to Messrs. Fry and Jennings, and they remembered having seen 
such rocks further east along the Howqua River, so, in their company, I 
went there, and about ij miles eastwards found that the amphibolites 
contained an occasional included block of chert. Twenty chains further 
on coloured cherts and jaspers with chalcedonic veins (as at Tatong) can 
be seen They are about 25 chains wide, and outcrop in the river-bed. 
On the eastern side of the cherts the amphibolites occur again, and again 
contain included chert blocks near the contact. 
Fig. 40. 
r >r 
