Gold-mining and assaying:

Gold-mining and assaying: a scientific guide for Australian emigrants


PREFACE.

The purpose of the following pages is to furnish the Australian Emigrant with the information necessary to enable him to conduct with facility the operations which are necessary to the successful prosecution of Gold-Mining.
The search for Gold is commonly regarded as a species of lottery, in which there are more blanks than prizes. It is, however, certain that much of its speculative character may be removed by an acquaintance with the various processes of Mining and Metallurgy.
That Australia possesses vast advantages in the form of mineral wealth, there can be no reason to doubt, and we may be equally certain that the larger proportion of these riches will ultimately fall to the share of the intelligent and the industrious.
The Emigrant who makes himself acquainted with the conditions under which Gold occurs, and the operations by which it may be most readily obtained, will evidently find himself far in advance of the less intelligent adventurer, who trusts to accident alone for success.
Habits of careful observation ought, on all occasions, to be assiduously cultivated, and then, should the harvest of the gold fields fail, a fund of information will have been acquired which may be advantageously applied to other branches of industry.
J. A. P.
August, 1852.

BY
JOHN ARTHUR PHILLIPS, F.C.S.
METALLUROIC CHEMIST,

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