[ Home ] [ Up ]

The Dungog Chronicle.

16 August 1892.

Although this mine is situated within a day's journey from Dungog, it is possible that many of our readers have not had an opportunity of inspecting it, nor perhaps of reading a description of its workings, and as it is the only alum mine and manufactory in the southern hemisphere and the second in the world, a few facts concerning it may prove interesting.

HEIGHT

The mine from which the ore, or raw material, is obtained, is merely a quarry on the face of what appears to the inexperienced eye, to be a ridge or cap of irregular and broken whitish - looking rocks on the top of the mountain which towers over 100Oft above sea level.

LOCATION

It is within two or three hundred yards of the picturesque little town of Bullahdelah, which nestles at the foot of the mountains, and is built on the banks of the tranquil but treacherous river Myall.

LOCAL NAME

It is locally designated as the Alum Mountain, and in appearance is like the famous Gloucester, Buckets mountains.

SIZE OF ALUM DEPOSIT

It is some 5 or 6 years since Mr. J. C. Seaver, the ex-member for Gloucester, who is a mining engineer, was first struck by the peculiar formation of the volcanic mountain, and to him is due credit for having first discovered the lode of the alum producing stone, which abounds in almost inexhaustible quantities.

Mr. H. D. Abbott, the genial and capable manager, who courteously showed us all over the workings, and to whom we are indebted for a deal of information, assured us that at the present time above the surface and in sight about 100,000,000 tons of stone, and that the short strip of ground, some 20Oft long, which at present being quarried, would supply their works with 3,000 tons of raw material annually for 450 years, besides supply enough of which to supply the colonial markets. Of course we hardly say that Mr. Abbott does not anticipate remaining long enough on this mundane sphere to see the present quarry.