Belated comments on Ashcroft and Tancanagno, from a colleague who prefers to
remain anonymous.
Re Ashcroft. There was another Ashcroft, one J.W. Ashcroft , who was also
active in NSW mining at the same time as E.A. Ashcroft. JWA was a principal
of Savage and Ashcroft, Sydney mining consultants. The firm was consultant
to the Kyloe copper mine at Adaminaby, which in 1911, installed (largely at
Ashcroft’s instigation) what was probably the first successful flotation
plant outside Broken Hill. The cost of the Minerals Separation plant was
recovered in 5 months.(See Ralph Birrell’s monograph, ‘The Role of Minerals
Separation Ltd in the Development of the Flotation Process’.) Were the two
Ashcrofts related?
I would like to buy a copy of Peter Jenkins book ‘The Elmore Mystery’ if
anyone could tell me where to get it from.
Re Tancanagno. The comment ‘Many such as it are used in the West Indies’
sounds like a bit of Scots leg pulling. In 1619 the chances of there being
Cornish or German style stamp mills in the West Indies would be very remote.
There were no mines then on the West Indian islands as far as I am aware.
Atkinson may have been referring to Mexico when speaking of the West Indies.
Even if he was the Spanish gold mines in Mexico did not use stamp mills of
the type derived from medieval European methods. Crushing of gold ore at
Mexican mines was done in three ways: by the ‘arrastra’ in which heavy
stones were dragged over the ore by mules: by the so-called Chilean wheel, a
large stone wheel set on edge moving around a circle and by the ‘maza’, a
single pillar stamp operating in a mortar (Otis Young, ‘Western Mining).
Gerard MacGill
52 Harvest Road, North Fremantle WA 6159
(08) 9335 7471; Facs (08) 9335 8241
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