t is to treat ore bodies in order to extract their metalliferous
contents, and whether in quartz crushing mill, lixiviating, or smelting
works there is much left to be desired in the method of treating our
ores.

My attention was recently attracted to an article written by Mr. F. A.
H. Rauft, M.E., from which I make the following extract:

He says, speaking of the German treatment of ores and the mode of
procedure in Australia, "It is high time that Government stepped in and
endeavoured by prompt and decisive action to bring the mining industry
upon a sound and legitimate basis. Though our ranges abound in all
kinds of minerals that might give employment to hundreds of thousands of
people, mining is carried on in a desultory, haphazard fashion. There is
no system, and the treatment of ores is of necessity handed over to the
tender mercies of men who have not even an idea of what an intricate
science metallurgy has become in older countries. During many years of
practical experience I have never known a single instance where a lode,
on being worked, gave a return according to assay, and I have never
known any mine where some of the precious metals could not be found in
the tailings or slag. The Germans employ hundreds of men in working for
zinc which produces some two or three per cent to the ton; here the same
percentage of tin could hardly be made payable, and this, mark you,
is owing not to cheaper labour alone, but chiefly to the labour-saving
appliances and the results of the researches of such gigantic intellects
as Professor Kerl and many others, of whom we in this country never even
hear. Go into any of the great mining works of central Germany, and you
may see acres covered by machinery ingeniously constructed to clean,
break, and sort, and ultimately deliver the ores into trucks or direct
into the furnace, and the whole under the supervision of a youngster or
two. When a parcel of ore arrives at any of the works, say Freiberg or
Clausthal, it is carefully assayed by three or four different persons
and then handed over to practical experts, who are expected to produce
the full amount of previous metal according to assay; and if by any
chance they do not, a fixed percentage of the loss is deducted from
their salary; or, if the result is in excess of this assay which is more
frequently the case, a small bonus is added to their pay. Compare
this system with our own wasteful, reckless method of dealing with our
pre