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Can anyone provide me with some general information regarding "tailings wheels".I'm not sure of their function but I have seen several early 1900's photographs of such items of equipment at various South African gold mills. Among these are Robinson Deep G.M., Simmer & Jack G.M. and Ferreira G.M. >From the photos I have seen It is difficult to make out exactly where in the mills' flowsheets the tailings wheels were located. Presumably they must be handling slurry at the back end of either the amalgamation or cyanidation processes. On first encountering the photos of the tailings wheels I wondered if they were being used to elevate slurry from one level in the plant to a higher one, in much the same way as a centrifugal pump would be used today. This would require the wheels to have an external drive source which unfortunately can't be seen in any of the photos I have so far seen, although this is possibly due to the angle at which they were taken. One further alternative could be that tailing slurries were allowed to flow by gravity over the wheels from a high elevation in the plant. In this way they could have been used to generate a source of power much in the same way as a conventional water wheel. In at least one of the photos I have seen there are at least four wheels all arranged in parallel and presumably on the same axle. If tailings wheels were used in either of the above ways then I expect that their use was more wide spread than just the SA gold mining industry. Any information would be gratefully received. For anyone who is interested I can send a scanning of the view of the tailings wheel at Simmer & Jack G.M. via a separate e-mail. Mark Smith.