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Show Irani m s ARE HiPPED Labor Troubles and Chaotic Cha-otic Market Conditions Hamper Industry. Mt. Morgan Gold Mine One of World's Greatest Great-est Producers. Chaotic conditions hamper the mining Industry of Australia, according to Percy R. Middleton, metallurgist, who for the past four years has been doing consult- I ing work in Sydney, Australia. Both la- I bor and market troubles have handicapped mining operations In the southern continent conti-nent since the signing of the armistice. During the period of the war the British government contracted to buy the entire mineral output of the Australian mines. This contract expired with the end of 1918, and because of the cessation of hostilities hos-tilities was not renewed. To aggravate market conditions that were already serious, seri-ous, delay in the repeal of an embargo which was placed bv the Australian gov-ernrnent gov-ernrnent on minerals for the period of the war forced mineral producers to hold their metal stocks, while companies in other parts of the world were selling copper cop-per for fair prices, says Mr. Middleton. Labor Conditions Serious. The Broken Hill property in New South Wales has been closed down tor some time because of labor troubles. Broken Hill, which is a town of 40,000 population and dependent altogether upon the mining industry for revenue, is the hotbed of radicalism in Australia. An agreement, which expired July 1, 1919, had been previously pre-viously reached by the operators and men. About a month previous to the above date, says Mr. Middleton, the men went out on strike. Under the old agreement, a working week had consisted of forty-four forty-four hours, and now the men are striking strik-ing for a five-day week. Labor conditions condi-tions at Conclurry, Queensland, are fairly normal, it is said. Production Is Large. Production of lead, zhe and silver at Broken Hill is large, according to Mr. Middleton. Although some silver is recovered, re-covered, the greater part of the revenue is derived from the lead and zinc. It was here that Frank Elmo, who is credited with having discovered the vacuum oil process, proved to the world that tiie oil flotation process could be operated profitably. profit-ably. Concentrates from Broken Hill are shipped to the Pore Pirie smelter, which is said to be the largest lead smelter in the world. Bei'ure the war a great part of the product was shipped to Germany. Now a great Dart of it is shipped to Oriental Ori-ental countries. Mt. Morgan Mine Unique. Of the world's unique ore depositions, that of ML Morgan gold mine is one that stands in a foremost position. The ore Is not found in a vein system, according to Mr. Middleton. A study of conditions would make it appear, although there is a great deal of controversy on this point, that this vast basin-shaped ore deposit, which formed the cap of the mountain, was forced up through several fissures. At first the ore was a very high-grade gold ore, but as depth was attained it changed to a low-grade copper which carried car-ried from $7 to $8 in gold. The manner of mining has also changed with development develop-ment from the steam shovel to the shaft and tunnel system of operation, it is. said. This mine up. to the present date' has produced .approximated $130,000,000, of which $100,000,000 was derived from gold. Milling Process Explained. The gold was recovered by the chlorina-tlon chlorina-tlon process and the copper by roasting, followed by leaching with sulphuric acid, after which the solution was run over iron rails. During recent years, the oil flotation flo-tation process of concentration has been used to a great extent. Prior to his departure. de-parture. Mr. Middleton had been experimenting experi-menting with improvements on the roasting roast-ing and leaching process treatment of copper sulphides with precipitation on electrolytic plates. These experiments proved, it is said, that a htgher per cent of recovery could be attained, but the 'unstable condition of the metal industry prevented any changes. Tasmania Resources Large. The mineral resources of Tasmania are great. This smaller island has a great advantage over Australia with the pos-eession pos-eession of abundant waterpower facilities Several hydro-electric plants have been Installed and this has been a great aid to the mining industry in Tasmania, according ac-cording to Mr. Middleton. The west coast has large and rich deposits of lead silver sil-ver and zinc. At Hobart there is an electric zinc plant 'with a capacity of fifteen fif-teen tons per day. R. H. Stevens, formerly for-merly research chemist at the United States Smelting. Refining & Mining company's com-pany's plant at Mid vale, Utah is chief metallurgist at this plant. At ML Lyell, the pyritic smelting svs-tem svs-tem is extensively used. The ore mined there has a largo sulphur content which is utilized in such a manner as to keep the coke consumption down to a minimum. mini-mum. Previous to te war Mr. Middleton spent two years in South America doing exploration ex-ploration work for an Australian syndicate. syndi-cate. At the beginning of the war Australian Aus-tralian capital had to be kept at home A8 Vff.ulL tlie plan Wil3 abandoned and pany l Ame,"ican com-w com-w : ' |