QUARTZ MINING MEMORANDA.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 261, 29 September 1874, Page 6

QUARTZ MINING MEMORANDA.

At the Royal Standard battery on Saturday last, Messrs Watson and party, of the Grown and Cross claim, completed a crushing of 188 tons. We hear on good authority, although we cannot vouch for it, that the total yield was close upon 200 ounces, or slightly over an ouhce to the ton. The battery is to start £gain immediately on a parcel of 150 tons for the Try Again Company. The Star of the East washed .up on Saturday with a return of 241 ounces of gold from 190 tons of stone. A dividend has been declared of 6s per share. The manager reports that this average is likely to be maintained for some time. He calculates that the Company has at least two years’ work before them from the present tunnel, and the prospects are quite as good now as when the reef was first struck. He expects within a week days to break through to the workings from the shaft that is being sunk. This will allow him to employ a few more men, and carry the main drives along the reef. The present system of clearing the foul air by means of the water pipes works exceedingly well in the tunnel, but in driving along the reef at right angles to the tunnel without a current of air,. it is very difficult to get rid of the powder smoke. This makes it impossible to get any great distance from the end of the tunnel until the shaft breaks through ; when this is done, he will have no difficulty in keeping the mine going steadily. The Heart of Oak has advertised for tenders to put in a tunnel some seventy feet below the level of the Star tunnel. This will be a work of considerable magnitude, as it will be about 800 feet in length, and will take frotnnine to twelve months for its completion. It has been suggested that the Oak and Star should combine in putting in one at a much r lower level, say 200 feet below the present Star tunnel. This, as it would pass through the Star ground, would be available for both companies, and as the present workings in the Star have proved that the reef is quite as. good or better at a depth of 200 feet than it was on the surface, and have quite exploded the ideathat reefs on the Carrickwere not payable at any depth. The directors have every confidence that the reef will be found payable, and not so much broken up ,as it Was nearer the surface. This, as it would give a depth of about 500 feet in the Star and 600 in the Oak, would effectually settle the question of the permanency of the reefs, and if found payable would give a great impetus to trade generally, as it would prove beyond a doubt the stability of the Carrick, and induce capitalists to invest for further prospecting it. ’ The Oak has made proposals for the sale of their half of the Star-and-Oak battery to the Star. As in the Oak it will be such a length of time before it is possible to get any atone, it is considered advisable to sell their portion, and if they .succeed in getting the reef payable, to put up another themselves, or crush at a public mill.

The meeting of Directors of the Carrick Range Water Supply Company for the purpose of appointing a working manager was to have been held yesterday, but owing to the severity of the weather, it was put off until this evening to secure a full meeting. A great number of applications have been sent in from all parts of the Province ; so the Directors will have some difficulty in deciding on the qualifications of the different applicants. The present severe weather will have the effect of retarding the commencement of the work, as it will be hardly possible to do so until it becomes more settled.