Only five years ago a miner returned to Adelaide, South Australia, from the West, and called on a sharebroker, giving him 500 Lake View shares to sell at as high a price as possible. They were sold for a few shillings, and when the miner got his cheque he remarked “he was sorry for the ‘bloke’ who bought them, as he had been working on the mine and knew she was no good.” Those 500 shares would now be worth several fortunes to that miner had he kept them. The biter was bitten; I wonder how he feels at the present day about it?
Overlooking the Great Boulder
That Mr. G. Brookman, of Adelaide, was certain five years ago of the great future of Lake View Consols is shown by a piece of paper with his calculations on it, now in the possession of Mr. Fotheringham, also of Adelaide, which reads as follows:—
“Reef on Lake View, 3000 feet long, 100 feet deep, equal to 300,000 feet, 6 feet wide, equal to 1,800,000 cub. feet, equal to 140,000 tons; 3 ounces to the ton, equal to 420,000 ounces; £4 per ounce, equal to £1,680,000; allow £420,000 for cost of raising and crushing, &c., leaves £1,260,000 available for dividends.”
This great mine stands first in the field as a gold-producer, the total yield in 1900 being 528,368 ounces, and dividends at the time of writing having been paid to the amount of £1,187,500 (one million one hundred and eighty-seven thousand five hundred pounds). When Brookman and Pearce arrived at Coolgardie where Bayley found his Eldorado, and not finding much there, went on to what was then called Hannan’s, now Kalgoorlie, to look at Cassidy’s Claim, they saw plenty of the golden metal to gladden their eyes. They began to work upon a reef, but Mr. Pearce, in his wanderings around the then Bush in spare time, was attracted to some ironstone hills. He prospected about, and was so well satisfied that he and his mate shifted camp and began to work on what is now the Ivanhoe property. Not keeping exactly within the pegged ground, they discovered a rich leader (a small lode running into a large one) not far from the camp. This was the first gold found on the Great Boulder. They then pegged out 20 acres around each find, and keeping their good fortune to themselves (knowing that a still tongue makes a wise head), soon pegged out what is now Lake View Consols. The present value of these syndicate holdings, if realised, would be about £30,000,000! So little was thought of the leases at first that they were called “Brookman’s Sheep Farms.”
I have a few pieces of really fabulously rich telluride that were given to me from the same place, the 300-foot level, which yielded the magnificent specimens sent to the Glasgow Exhibition. The veins of the precious stuff were nearly four inches thick. They are so handsome that it seems almost a pity to break them up and turn them into what is called “filthy lucre.”
After coming from the mine I, with the rest of a party that I had been so fortunate as to meet on my visit here, was hospitably entertained by the manager. I then resumed my journey. This time I thought myself growing so clever, and beginning to know so much travelling alone, that, seeing an opening between two large heaps of what I afterwards discovered to be rich tailings (from the crushings of the ore from which all the gold has not been extracted, and when treated by cyanide, which is a solution for extracting every particle of it, often gives good returns), I started to take a short cut through. I had, however, not thought of the air-tram going along with its freight of ore overhead, and just as we were going through the opening whirl it went along, frightening the poor horse, who nearly upset the trap. But a second time that day I was saved to continue my journey, this time by two miners, who were just emerging from a shed close by, and who said, “Private road, missus.” However, on seeing my look of distress, and on my mentioning my business as a lady explorer, they let me pass on my way again rejoicing. From the side of Lake View on which I now was, a totally different view presented itself. The large buildings of the mine completely block the township of the Boulder, and for a mile ahead nothing can be seen but mines, mines, mines, and on the flats tents, Hessian camps, offices, and mine-managers’ houses. Many good-sized places about here are boarding-houses. The majority of the men camp and cook for themselves, but some of them merely sleep in their tents and take their meals at the above-mentioned houses, usually looked after by two or three women, who do the mending and washing required. They speak in highest terms of the conduct of all the men; indeed, from what I saw and heard, the camps are very well conducted, and I am sure I have met with the greatest kindness and politeness from the mining community in general. I drove all round these mines and camps, but only stopped once to get a cup of tea at one of the houses, where I found the housekeeper most kind and communicative.
Hannan’s Star Mine