Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), Thursday 2 June 1887, page 3


THE EL CALLAO GOLD MINE IN

VENEZUELA.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BRISBANE COURIER».

Sir--The annual report of this famous gold mine has just been published, and it "tops" any gold mine in Australia, though it does not come up to to the record of the Broken Hill mine in New South Wales, which gave £400,000 worth of silver in its first year.

El Callao began business in 1870 with an output of about 9000 tons, which cost £6 per

ton or more to raise and crush, or (as they call it in South America) to "mine and mill."

Now, under an able English manager they put out 74,000 tons per year, and expenses of raising and crushing are only £3 per ton.

Those 74,000 tons yielded, all through ????' gold to the ton worth £9 10s from is assay. The best yield per ton of the year was in April 1886, of 4 oz 12 dwt per ton, from xxxx tons (of^

20001b. English. The mine has 120 head of stamps at work, the lode is large, the rich xxxx gives nearly 5oz to the ton, and the outside parts of it 1oz 8dwt only. The ore is crushed to a fineness that admits of 54 per cent of the tailings passing through a sieve with 2500 holes

to the square inch. From 1870 to 1880 the mine yielded 9000 tons per annum of quartz and ore; 22,000 tons per annum during the next three years: 31,000 tons in 1884; 43,000 tons in 1885. and 74,000 tons in 1886, during which last year the miners were on strike (though not the machine men) for a couple of months. Their new mill now crushes for an expense of 10s per ton only. The old mill still costs £1

a ton to crush it.

1 am, sir. &c.

N. BARTLE?.