Dudley’s 2-Stamper
Mill
Mt. Bischoff Mine
Waratah, Tasmania
April 14, 2014
We left Launceston for Queenstown. There were several remnants
of stamper batteries in Waratah. There was a 2-stamper at Dudley’s
Mill at the Mt. Bischoff Mine that was constructed back in the 1950’s and was
moved from its original site not far from Waratah to the new location.
Before we show the present location
and conditions we will take you back to its original location on Mt Bischoff
where it was used to process tin bearing ores for the local mines in Mt
Bischoff. The following is a grouping of pictures that show the process that
was used to relocate the building, as it was back in the 1950’s, to the town of
Waratah. The first picture below shows the shed as it was found at Mt Bischoff.
The next picture shows everything including the ore pile was
meticulously assembled and moved to make sure that it would be in the same
position when it reached Waratah.
Pains were taken to make sure that everything was properly
marked and the process would be preserved. A good example is the self feeder that
he made form a 44 gallon barrel below.
The stamper battery had to be completely disassembled and refurbished.
The slurry pump was an important part of the milling
process. It would take a suction of the mixture of ground ore and water and
pump it over to the shaker table. This saved the millman time and a lot of work
to get the concentrates over to the shaker table so the tin cold be separated.
You probably cannot read the fine print, but the pictures are worth a thousand words. They actually moved the entire shed over to Waratah in pieces and reassembled it. They built a house around the outside of the shed and when the building had been completed it looked exactly like the original mill.
This is its new home under a modern building. Everything in
the building is as it was when they moved it to it present location, even the
clothing.
Riverside Battery made the mill and there was also a nice
feeder that was very similar to the Hendy feeders in the States. There was no
sluice table since the material was pumped from the collection pan directly to
the shaker table and all of the work of processing the material was completed
at the shaker.
The slurry pump (below) is the picture on the left.
Everything is there, but the rubber plunger, which has rotted away. On the
right the millman developed a 44 gallon ore hopper that would let material into
the feeder when the level got low. These miners worked with what they had and
made it work.
The 44 gallon drum has been clearned up and is back in running conditin once again.
There were stamp mill parts all over town as demonstrated by
the pictures below:
nice..
ReplyDeleteWhy would there be mining equipment randomly lying around in a park? I can see why you'd want to restore that kind of thing. It is a big part of our history.
ReplyDeleteAnita Mas | http://www.mangelsdorfengineering.com.au