Geology of the Vegetable Creek Tin-Mining Field, New England District, New South Wales; With Maps and Sections

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887 Excerpt: ... and when found, the channels though probably not rich, will contain large patches of gravel which may pay working expenses when the price of tin is good. VEGETABLE CREEK LEAD. The lower Vegetable Creek Deep Lead was first worked at its source, as a shallow deposit, at 18 feet from the surface, in portion 231, Strathbogie North, at a distance of over mile south of the main shallow workings on Vegetable Creek. The overburden consisted chiefly of pipeclay, and the sand or gravel composing the washdirt had an average thickness of 3 feet. The tin ore was black and well worn; that in portion 232 containing pellets up to i inch in diameter. The stanniferous gravel was found to run in a welldefined belt, at first westerly, and then south-westerly, and was followed by means of a tunnel 2,000 feet long, shafts being sunk at intervals. The surface of the ground was nearly level, but that of the underlying tin gravel was found to have a gradual slope to the south-west--here the gravel would widen from 18 feet to 90 feet, there it would become contracted again, and in places thin out altogether, and for a chain or so there would be no tin, merely a channel in the rotten surface of white quartz-porphyry choked with pipeclay Such blank spaces in the lead were generally found to occur where the fall was more than usually steep, for where the bottom became more level the tin-bearing gravel invariably became thicker and richer. At one point in the main workings--near the roadway between portions 232 and 233--a good run of wash, 3 to 4 feet thick, was cut under a layer of hard cement 14 inches thick, and 16 feet below this again the main lead was worked. There could be little doubt, from the shape of the lead and the general character of the tin gravel, that the Vegetable Cr...