SPARGO'S PYRITES GOLD WORKS
75-79 SPARROWHAWK ROAD MAIDEN GULLY, GREATER BENDIGO CITY
Statement of Significance
Spargo's Pyrites Gold Works contains of the remnants of six circular brick bases, several concrete floors, a culvert and a small mound of calcined sand. The treatment of auriferous pyritic ore, to facilitate gold extraction, commenced on the Bendigo goldfield in the early 1860s. None of the early attempts proved profitable until the introduction of the chemical chlorination process during the 1870s. Records show that John Spargo's treatment works was operating at Bendigo by 1872, the plant including a reverberatory furnace and arastra (grinding mill or Chilean mill). By the 1880s, Bendigo had become a major centre for the treatment of 'refractory' ores, with several large pyrites companies, including Spargo's, operating up until the First World War. Spargo's, like many others, closed during the war due to the lack of manpower, etc., and does not appear to have recommenced after the war.
Spargo's Pyrites Gold Works is of historical, scientific and archaeological importance to the State of Victoria.
Spargo's Pyrites Gold Works is historically and scientifically important as a characteristic and well preserved example of an important form of gold mining. In some ores, the greater part of the gold is combined with pyrites, making the gold very difficult to extract. From the mid-nineteenth century, miners experimented with various metallurgical (heat treatment) processes to unlock gold from pyritic ore. Extant evidence of these metallurgical processes, of which Spargo's Pyrites Works is an example, are extremely rare in Victoria.
Spargo's Pyrites Gold Works is archaeologically important for its potential to yield artefacts and evidence which will be able to provide significant information about the technological history of gold mining.
[Source: Victorian Heritage Register]
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SPARGOS PYRITES GOLD WORKS
Victorian Heritage Register H1360 -
LIDDELL'S PYRITES WORKS
Victorian Heritage Inventory -
NEW CARSHALTON MINE
Victorian Heritage Inventory
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