The End Result

When I was a young man I worked for the New Occidental Gold Mining Company in Cobar in Western N.S.W. At that time the mine shaft was 1500 feet deep (about 500 meters) and that was a long haul to bring the ore to the surface for processing and a large amount of what came to the surface was valueless rock in which the gold was imbedded.

The Poppet Head (left of centre in the photo) is located over the shaft. There is a steel rope that goes from the “Winder” (in a shed nearby ) over a pulley on the top of the Poppet Head and straight down the shaft and normally has a “Cage” on the end that takes the miners down to where they are working and brings them up at the end of their shift. When ore is to be brought to the surface the Cage is replaced by a large Kibble which is a type of large bucket which brings the ore to the surface.

The broken rock containing the Gold is tipped into a Crusher (a very noisy machine that breaks it up into small pieces). These small pieces are then placed into a very large cylindrical container which looks a bit like one of those fuel tanks on the petrol semi-trailers. This container is called a Ball Mill because lots of steel balls larger than a Baseball are placed in it with the ore and as it rotates these balls crush the ore into a powder. This powdered ore is introduced to a cyanidation process which separates the Gold from the “mud” which is dumped on a heap that you can see on the right in the photo

whilst the Gold is melted and made into Gold Bricks that can be comfortably handled and stored, and later made into jewellery or placed in The Bank of England to secure the value of our currency.

In the Book of Zachariah Chapter 13, God, when talking about His people, says that “I will refine them as Silver is refined, and will try them as Gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, it is my people: and they shall say, the Lord is my God.” There are a number of other places in the Bible where this “Refining” is spoken of. The general gist of it is that we need to go through times of testing which are often very difficult in order for us to realise what is truly valuable and worthwhile and separate ourselves from valueless things that only pollute and deprive us of the life we were designed for. Paul tells young Timothy to “study to show himself approved”, now study isn’t easy; ask anyone doing a University Course, they have to decide on what their priorities are and drop many things they liked doing previously.

 Why? Well they don’t need any unnecessary distractions, that’s why. The same sort of thing applies to a person who joins the army they give up their freedom for a life of strict discipline and rigorous training, and that can be very heavy going but they feel that it is not too high a price to pay to defend the way of life they believe in, therefore they look on it as a privilege. We must think seriously about our life too and make a choice, as there is no avoiding it.  We are challenged by the alternatives that God gave Joshua to present to the people under his care, as recorded (for our decision) in Joshua chapter 24 verse 15: “Choose you this day who ye will serve.” We have a free will so therefore have a choice and that choice is to either ignore God, do our own thing and end up in Hell (which doesn’t look very attractive to me) or we can accept God’s offer of forgiveness, do things the way He instructs in the New Testament, be guided by Him and end up in Heaven with Eternal Life (a far better option). The New Testament instructions are rather like that Cyanidation process I spoke of above, and mean that we have to separate ourselves from many of the questionable things we are now involve in as the gold separates from the mud. Paul, when writing to the Christians in Rome puts it like this: “I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 8:1).  Food for thought.   Best wishes, Tom.