The company amalgamated with the Lothair Mine in 1885 and became the South Clunes United Company.
The mining property of the South Clunes United Company is situated within the municipal boundary of Clunes, Victoria,
comprising an area of 156 acres, or a length from north to south
of 4,600 feet on the course of the lodes; these hereafter will be
particularised.
The title of the claim is a lease direct from the
Crown, to expire fifteen years from date; position of the Mine
is central, being on the southern portion of township; and of
easy access, Victorian Government Railway passing through the
Company's property.
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VICTORIA VILLA,
19 ROWE STREET, NORTH FITZROY,
May 19th, 1888.
THE CHAIRMAN AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS -
SOUTH CLUNES UNITED COMPANY.
GENTLEMEN,
I reference to your request that I should furnish you with
a report upon the mines of the South Clunes United Company,
I have the honor to state that though precluded from doing so in
my official capacity, I feel at liberty as a private individual to
offer such remarks and opinions as are based upon my own
personal knowledge of the Clunes Goldfield, and the known facts
in connection with the property under notice.
The report of your Mining Manager, based as it is on reliable
official data, leaves nothing for me to add as to the area of the
property, the various reefs and lodes contained in it, the quantities
of quartz already raised and the yields obtained, and the
present condition of the Mine and Plant.
The special points to which I would therefore call attention
are, the very favorable position of the property on one of the
most important gold-bearing belts of reefs in Australia, the great
significance of the yields quoted, the comparatively shallow depths
to which mining has yet extended, and the great extent of unworked
and untried ground along or on either side of the courses
of the known lodes.
Your property, as pointed out in the Mining Manager's Report,
contains a length of 4,600 feet on the course of the great belt
of lodes from which such great returns have been already obtained
in mines adjacent on the north. The gold already obtained and
the dividends paid from your - mines place the richly auriferous
character of the lodes beyond a doubt, while the size and strength
of the lodes give assurance of their permanence to great depths.
The special significance of the gross yield from the Clunes
Goldfield consists in the fact that from mines within an area of
1 1/4 square miles the amount of gold that has been raised is about
1-50th (one-fiftieth) of the entire gold-yield of Victoria since the first discovery of the precious metal in the colony. Of this
proportion nearly one-sixth has been obtained from the mines
within your amalgamated properties, though, as shown by your
Mining Manager, none of the shafts thereon have reached
900 feet.
Your ground resembles that of the Band and Albion Company,
at Ballarat, with respect to the presence of rich alluvial
leads skirting the belt of reefs, from whose denudation the alluvial
gold has been derived.
The alluvial gold in both cases has practically been worked
out, but the lodes continue downwards in the bed-rock, and maintain
their auriferous character.
The rocks with which the lodes in your property are associated
are identical geologically with those of the Sandhurst and
Ballarat Goldfields; in fact are part of the same system as those
of Ballarat - Lower Silurian.
From the experience of these fields it may with confidence
be predicted that your mines are likely to continue to be productive
to as great a depth as human skill can penetrate, and the
deepening of your main shaft is therefore a proper and legitimate
work, in view of the absolute certainty of the downward permanence
of the lodes.
Besides the length and depth along the known lodes which
wait development, there is a strong likelihood that in the great
width of your property there may be other lines of reef as yet
undiscovered, which will eventually be found by means of cross-cutting.
In conclusion, I beg to express my conviction as to the bona
fide and soundly legitimate character of your undertaking, and
my firm belief in the successful issue of your proposed extended
operations.
I have the honor to be,
Gentlemen,
Your obedient Servant,
REGINALD A. P. MURRAY.
BBQ
Clunes
