MINING SUMMARY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 39, 15 February 1905, Page 6

MINING SUMMARY.

The first return of the year from the Waihi G-M.Co. was for three weeks only, and the yield was £43,477 from 21,400 tons of ore. The tonnage looks larger than usual, owing to the fact that this is the first time the metric system has been adopted. The total output from the Waihi mines has now reached £3,569.084. of which £1,615,306 has been distributed amongst shareholders. The buying price at present is £6 16/6, and there have been sales recently up to £6 17/. The capitalised value is therefore £3,475,000, or nearly half a million less than the amount of bullion prouueed to date from this mine. Waihi Grand Junction shares have had steady buyers at 75/ and 70/, but few sales were reported. Waihi Extended shares have eased a little in price, but Waihi Consolidated had frequent sales at from 1/10 to 2./. Boring is proceeding in both the Waihi South and Waihi Consols mines, with a view to locating some of the reefs so successfully developed in the Waihi mine. A± Karangahake little of interest has occurred in mining. The return from the Talisman Consolidated this month" was £4394 from 2570 tons, and the price, after falling from 11/ to 8/, recovered to 9/6. The total output from the Talisman mine now amounts to £322,181. The Komata Reefs return this month was not so good as usual, being £2407 from 1260 tons, bringing the total output up to £142,540. So far no new developments have been reported from the Crown mines. A matter of considerable interest to raining at Lower Thames was the decision of the Drainage Board to take over from the Government the fine pumps erected by the Thames Hauraki Company, and which were subsidised to the extent of £25.000 by the Government, and subsequently bought in for another £5000 odd. The Minister for Mines, in order to encourage testing the deep lcveles at Thames has asrreed to let the Board have the pumps upon payment of merely 5 per cent. T>er annum upon the £5000. Any company therefore that wishes to go down to 1000 or even 2000 feet has now the opportunity of doing so upon payment of the proportionate cost of pumping. By this means companies will be sarved the great expense of putting up costly pumps to unwater individual mines. Great interest is still felt in the new discovery in the Waiotahi mine. Two crushings nave already been made, and the richness of the ore may be estimated from the fact that 250 tons (including Bewt. of picked stoae) yielded £4.794, -which, with the former yield, brought the total from the new find up to £59rVi. and enabled 16/ per share to be paid in two months on the GOOO shares of the company. This month, however, the shares were increased to 60,000 by dividing each original one into ten, and at tho present time the shares are quoted at from 15/ to 16/. A winze is now being sunk on the reef, and already another SOlbs of picked stone has been obtained, which augurs -well for the continuance of the run downwards. In the thirty odd years of its existence the old Waiorahi Company paid £45,000 on a paid-up capital of £15,000, and produced £197.340 worth of gold. Vigorous development work is now proceeding in other Thames mines in the vicinity of the Waiotahi, and it is fair to expect that as a result other valuable discoveries will be made. GOLD RETURNS. The returns from the various mines for the past three -weeks total £55,594 10/5, made up as follows: — TOTAL FOR THREE WEEKS, £56,595 10/5. The initial returns for tlie year 1905 to hand during the past tbree weeks amount to £58,595 10/5. The following table gives the details:— £ s. d. Waihi Co.. 21,400 tons 43,477 0 0 Talisman Consolidated, 2570 tons 4,394 18 8 Komata Reefs Co.. 12G0 tons 2.407 0 0 Mahal a Royal. 100 tons 190 0 0 May Qneen Extended 387 3 9 Wa'otahi Co.. 250 tons 4,267 0 0 Tal-rna Broken Hills, 170 tons slimes 306 0 0 Tokatea Consols. 8 tons 165 8 0 New EcUpse, 146 tons ... 1,001 O O Total for tlxree weeks £56,595 10 5 . "Last month New Zealand exported 58,1320z of gold, valued at £234,812. as compared with 29,2170z valued at £109,----802 in the corresponding month of last year. The export of silver last month was 43,8630z, valued at £4427.