20 
the southern one a trial crushing of roughly-picked material is being tested 
at the Ballarat School of Mines. Along this line of reef the wolfram occurs 
in line crystals, forming veins up to an inch in width, with quartz interspersed 
along the laminations ; the remaining portion of the reef where large is devoid 
of wolfram, but samples assayed for gold gave the following results :—• 
Assay Xo. 
Gold per ton. 
Silver per ton. 
oz. dwt. gr-. 
oz. dwt. gr. 
366 
0 1 19 
0 1 7 
385 
0 3 22 
0 1 23 
On the western outcrop (Bass & Watson's), an old shaft, sunk by Tibbett 
in 1869, is recorded by Mr. R. M. Sergeant in the Ballarat Star of the 29th June, 
1869, as having in it a lode 5 feet wide highly charged with wolfram, some 
crystals of black oxide of manganese, and stains of copper. This shaft has 
now caved in, but the prospectors made a surface cut into the reef, and revealed 
the hanging wall of a lode over 10 feet in width carrying wolfram for a width of 
2 feet. In this reef, the wolfram occurs in large crystals of 4 oz. and 5 oz. 
weight, also as lo t ose pieces in the clay adjacent. At the date of inspection, 
this cut was 5 feet deep, but the prospectors purpose sinking a new~ shaft to 
cut through the lode at a depth to ascertain its value. 
Wolfram exists in apparently payable quantity in both cases, but the con¬ 
ditions are dissimilar in that the crystals of wolfram from the western reef are 
large, while in the eastern reef they are usually small. 
Fine specks of free gold occur with the wolfram, and assays of samples 
gave—- 
Assay Xo. 
Gold per ton. 
Tungstic Acid (WO.). 
385 
387 
368 
oz. dwt. gr. 
0 3 22 
0 7 20 
0 3 22 
per cent 
0-44 
0-51 
2-53 
Metallic bismuth and oxide, carbonate, and sulphide of bismuth occur in 
the reefs usually adjacent to, but not in association with, the wolfram. 
Scheelite in crystals can also be observed, as well as tungstic ochre, with the 
wolfram in surface specimens. 
Copper pyrites is recorded, but none was observed by me, though covellite 
was visible in cavities from which pyrite has decomposed. There is little 
doubt that the area is one which merits prospecting, and if the various appli¬ 
cants for leases fulfil the labour conditions necessary to hold their areas, good 
results are likely to accrue. A sample shown to me while visiting the area 
came from a mile east of the easterly reef, and contained a crystal of wolfram, 
while a sample in the Ballarat School of Mines Museum is recorded from Flag¬ 
staff Hill, about 14 miles east of the most easterly point, which agrees in 
position with the reef known as the Superb, exploited by the Superb Copper 
Mining Syndicate in 1869. 
An analysis, made in 1869 by Abel, giving manganese protoxide 58*50 
per cent., is interesting as coming from the locality. 
"[ 21 . 8 . 12 .] 
