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MOUNT HEPBURN COMPANY GOLD TREATMENT WORKS

Other Names GENERAL EXPLORATION COMPANY ,  KING CASSILIS MINE Location CASSILIS ROAD TONGIO, EAST GIPPSLAND SHIRE File Number HER/2001/000481 Level Registered

[1/4] MT HEPBURN COMPANY GOLD [2/4] MT HEPBURN COMPANY GOLD [3/4] 1 mt hepburn treatment works [4/4] mt hepburn plan

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
The Mount Hepburn Treatment Works is located near the junction ofPower'sGully and Swifts Creek. It is the site of major miningoperations from1896 to 1907 and the elaborate plant and processesrequired to extractgold from refractory ore (heavily mineralised goldbearing rock). Themine was also briefly worked in the 1930s and 1940s.It is a complicatedand extensive site with a series of adit levels,tramways and hut sitesand a palimpsest of ore processing relics on thebank of Swifts Creek.The significant components include but are notlimited to:
* stone piersvat foundations and discharge tramway.
* Dumps of cyanided and calcined battery sands and pond.
* Bed of large reverberatory furnace, remnants of flue, stack baseandother structures.
* Large ash dump containing ceramic and iron artefacts.
* Water-jacket blast furnace and small dump of slag.
* Clusters of scrap mining plant and vehicles.
* Barrel furnace, compressor, motor engine and associated material(slagand flint stones)
* Abandoned huts and sheds.
* Insitu stone crusher, milling machinery and associated structures.
* Earthworks including lower-most mullock heap, tramway andcutting,water race and concrete reservoir.

How is it significant?
The Mount Hepburn Treatment Works is of historical andscientificsignificance to the State of Victoria.

Why is it significant?
The Mount Hepburn Treatment Works is historically important as arareexample of a once widespread type. In the 1870s Victorian minersbeganto have success in extracting gold from refractory ores throughaprocess which involved roasting finely ground ore inreverberatoryfurnaces. In the late 1890s a new chemical process wasadded to theminer?s ore-retrieval repertoire which involved usingsolutions ofcyanide. The cyanide process proved to be extremelyimportant technologyand is still the basis of gold recovery in themining industry today.Example of both processes ? roasting and cyaniding- occurs at the siteand their importance at the time is clearlyillustrated by the scale ofthe surviving heritage.

The Mount Hepburn Treatment Works is scientifically important forthesurvival of a range of relics documenting attempts to treatrefractoryores through chemical and metallurgical means. Of crucialsignificanceis the remains of the cyanide works, the surviving featuresranging fromvery visible masonry structures to subtle traces. No otherplace inVictoria or possibly Australia can match the site, in extent,variety,archaeological or scientific potential in terms of surviving relics.