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This page last updated February 2008.
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Gold & Copper quartz reef mine Pre 1875 - Abt 1881 (From Mitchell's Creek mine) 'About 3 miles further to the north is the Kaiser gold mine belonging to Messrs. Rouse and Jamieson. There are several reefs here, the quartz being sometimes of a very honey-combed or spongy nature and charged with pyrites. Associated with these are irregular lodes and masses of slatey greenstone hardly distinguishable from the encasing rock. The fissures in this vein stuff are often filled with per-oxide of iron and carbonates of copper, in which occur coarse specks of gold. Some good specimens, showing this remarkable association of gold with copper ore, were kindly presented to the Museum of Mines by Messrs. Rouse and Jamieson. It is highly probable that patches of the greenstone itself will be found sufficiently auriferous to pay for working, for I think there can be no doubt that the gold has been concentrated in the veins and lodes by the chemical action of meteorie water infiltrating from the greenstone'.
From the outset it appears the problem with the Kaiser mine was the lack of water nearby. Mitchell's Creek Mine had freehold title to the waters of Mitchell's Creek, a mile and a quarters distance. Even though the Kaiser mine was a similar distance from the same creek in the opposite direction , they did not have the same freehold access. Mitchell's Creek was not a totally reliable source however, and in 1877 there had apparently been a prolonged drought which would have meant limited (or none) water in Mitchell's Creek.
'It will be observed that of the two companies who are working their ground by machinery, one of them, the Kaiser, through want of water, worked only five or six weeks during the year. This I need hardly explain represents a very large decrease in the quantity of gold which under more favourable circumstances would have been won. And by roughly comparing the returns from the two mines, the Mitchell's Creek Mine being better supplied with water, it will be seen that the decrease represents something over 2,000ozs'.
Probably for this reason a crushing-treatment plant was established on the bank of Mitchells Creek near the site of the present day homestead of 'Glen Mitchell', and a small settlement formed here, instead of near the minesite itself. This battery was described in 1878 as 'being one of the most complete crushing plants in the colony'.
'The Kaiser mine, to which I have in former reports made reference, is situated still nearer the terminus at Wellington, not being quite 12 miles distance from that town; its lodes have always been rich in gold, silver and copper, but of late it has been determined by the proprietors to work chiefly on a copper basis, and to that end the machinery has received a new adaptation, from plans supplied by Mr. Orlovich, the manager, by which increased efficiency in the saving of all the metals will be secured'.
'The working of the mine will be henceforth conducted on an extensive scale, a contract having been taken for the first thousand tons of stone, with almost unlimited power of continuance at the same price. Several hundred tons of stone are already at grass, and the first instalment at the machine will be treated during the present week. Fifty men are now employed on the mine in various departments, and when in full working order I am informed that nearly if not quite a hundred will be required. The residuum from the crushings of former years, of which several thousand tons have been conserved, is understood to be rich in ore. This it is proposed to treat in a carefully exhaustive manner'.
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Despite the optimism shown in this account, and the following account also by Fred Marsh in 1881 below, the operations at Kaiser were apparently not profitable and consequently relatively short lived.
'With regard to the Kaiser, I can only regret that it has beeen at work for so short a time during 1881, for it really is a first class plant, and under the able management of Mr. M. Orlovich, to whom I am indebted a great deal of information, and who took great pains to show to me and explain a clever invention of his own for separating the copper from the gold by means of what he calls the box system - that is long wooden boxes about 12 to 14 feet long, 9 inches wide and 6 inches deep, (or for greater convenience they may be divided and properly fitted and adjusted so as to be adapted to the slope of the battery plates), fitted in connection with the plates &c, of the battery for catching the fine gold after the material operated on - conglomerate lode - leaves the stamper boxes; the manual labour being reduced to a minimum'.
As was the case with the Mitchell's Ck. mine, the Kaiser mine ceased production in 1881, but the small village that had formed along the creek near the crushing plant, still remained as the focal point for the immediate area, and the convent which had been constructed in 1877 continued to operate supposedly servicing the people on the nearby farms.
This puddling pond is one of the remaining indications of the operations of the Kaiser crushing and treatment works. (Thanks Barbara Preston for this excellent image & information) A puddling pond was used to help break up 'intractable alluvium and clay'. The heavier minerals sunk to the bottom of the sludge, which was cleaned out at regular intervals and further treated by more advanced methods, to facilitate their retrieval. 'You have identified the remains of a puddling machine at the treatment site. I had thought that this and another nearby were Cornish buddles that have lost their mortar capping'.
'A paddling machine was used to break-up wetting resistant masses of clayey soil and form thin slurry that could be run across tables or boxes to recover the alluvial gold or tin. At the Kaiser mine, It could have been used to recover gold from a clay gossan.'
'A buddle was used to upgrade gold or tin-bearing concentrate that had been recovered from tables or boxes after the mercury plates of the battery had recovered the free milling gold. The circular brick structures on Mitchells creek are exactly like a buddles except that they do not have a very shallow conical mortar capping on their central piers. The concentrate was fed with water under rotation onto the centre of the top of the conical surface and the minerals in the concentrate separated down the cone in order of their specific gravities. A cut was made in the concentrate separated on the cone, to discard further waste and up grade the concentrate. I will be at the Kaiser mine in a couple of weeks (from 4/2/2008) and I will have another look at these structures.'
Later in Feb 2008
'Ive had a closer look at the two circular pits at the Kaiser ore treatment site on Mitchells Creek'.
'The largest pit is a brick-lined concrete structure with a central pedestal which has a flat slightly sloping top and a deep 20 cm diameter hole in its centre. The pedestal does not have the conical top that I would expect to find with a buddle. The careful built, circular brick lining and the central hole a pivot hole indicate that it was indeed a horse-powered rotary puddler as you have suggested'.
'The smaller pit is a circular concrete structure but there is no central pedestal that is evident. Again, it doesnt have the special features of a buddle and so it also is likely to have been a puddler'.
Also in evidence at the site is the remains of crushings seen in this 2006 image - their grey colouring being in stark contrast to the surrounding red countryside. Mitchell's Creek
As occurred in 1881, the mood of optimism was unfounded, and this venture also apparently failed, and no mention was made in the mining records during this time of the Kaiser mine at all. |
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NSW Dept. Lands - online Parish & Historic Map resource NSW Dept. Mineral Resources - online DIGS resource Wellington Times archives Barbara Preston Boyd Pratt |