VPRS 19302 Assay Registers

Full description

This series comprises bound volumes recording assay analyses undertaken by the laboratories of Geological Survey Victoria (VA 4118) and the Mines Department (VA 612).

An assay is a chemical analysis used to determine the proportion of metallic (gold, silver, copper, etc.) or non- metallic (sulphur, phosphorus, etc.) elements in a sample. It is also used to determine the quality and purity of the ore or precious metal and identify pollutants or impurities. Geological samples were collected by individuals, businesses, or government departments from sites across Victoria, and included brown and black coal, quartz, tailings, bore water, mine air, rock, silt, and clay.

Samples were then sent to the Mines Department, accompanied by the required correspondence detailing the sender’s name and address, the type of material to be assayed, the locality in which the material was collected, and the nature of treatment required – for example ‘assay for gold’, or ‘full analysis’. Once delivered to the Department, the correspondence received a number for recordkeeping purposes, and was forwarded on to the laboratory. 

Once the analysis was complete, a copy of the results was recorded in the Assay Register. Often, they were transcribed directly, however in many instances they were handwritten or, later, a typed transfer copy of the original report, stuck to the page or as a loose-leaf insert. In later volumes, the copied reports match the originals within the series VPRS 19143 Assay Reports. The date the report was received and the date a copy was forwarded to whomever requested it was also captured in the Assay Register.