MINING FOR MILLIONS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2017, 19 December 1888, Page 3

MINING FOR MILLIONS.

(" Pall Mall Budget,")

Mr " Brick " Pomeroy Is again In ! London In the capacity of President of the Atlantis-Pfcolfio Tunnel Company. It may be remembered that Mr Pomeroy and his allies are engaged m the arduous and costly enterprise of driving r tunnel through the narrowest point of the mow capped Great Divide — the Rooky Moantains—primarily for the purpose of improving the railway communication with the territory of tftah and the Pacific Slope generally, bat also m no inconsiderable degree with the object of more thoroughly mining the mimy veins of lead, silver, and gold which ton through the mountains eeleoted as the location of the tnnnel. Mr Pomeroy has had a stiff battle to fight ; for nearly eight years baa elapsed sinoe he initiated the enterprise. His persistence and patience, however, leem on the point of meeting with their reward. A great wall of granite which had kept guard for ages, as it were, over the treasures of the richest mountains of the range, having been pierced at last, the labourers employed upon this immense undertaking have just entered upon the work of disembowelling the mountain proper — whioh, by the way, has so -far not yielded a handful of soil. The business of tuoDelling and exploring had been taken m hand by a firm of London contractor*, Messrs TeinoD, who are showing their faith m the enterprise by taking £50,000 m shares tn lien of £60,000 m oash. Five miles of tunnelling now lies before them, bat they hope to get through their task m the coarse of the next foar year*. Mr Pomeroy declares that when the tunnel has been driven dear through the mountains it will have oat at right angles more than two hundred and fifty veins ! Mr Sydney Skertchly, formerly belonging to the Geological Survey of England, repotted last year that forty-five lodes had been already proved, by miners working down from the tops of the mountains. The vein* already reached In the course of the tonnelllng are said to have given, moit satisfactory results. Tho general average value of the ore m the veins now being laid open is stated to be £40 per ton, the values ranging from 60 dols. to 20,000 dots, per ton They vary from a. few inches to several feet m width. In Mr Pomeroy'n vivid language, "they are orevioea In the rooky crust of the earth Into which, when the mineral contents are taken out, a man might be dropped down thousands of feet, as a fly might drop into o crack In the Ice and go down, down, dpwn to water beneath, even though the 100 were miles In thickness." The tunnel will out the veins at depths ranging from 1000 feet to 4500 feet below where they show along the aides at the tops of the mountains ; while as to their bottom, "In all the history of mining," Mr Pomeroy observes, " the bottom of a fissure vein has never yet been reached." As President Pomeroy pota it, this m " mining for the millions/

When finished, the railway tunnel will, In all probability, be both lighted and worked by electricity. As from Denver, It will Bave 2/50 miles upon one ronto and 300 miles upon another route to Salt Luke Oity, when the railway, when It gets oat of the tuunel, will open up a country larger than the State of New York, admirable foe grazing and farming, and reputably rioh m gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, wood, ooal, and petroleum. So oautiously and economically has the enterprise been conducted, the oompany hts paid all its debts np to the ni'ddie of this month (October). Mr Pomeroy baa not come to London m search of further oapital ; he has simply come to Uke np 2,000,000t10]5, that oertain London adventurers, confident In the success of his ■oheme, have placed %t his disposal;