MINING INTELLIGENCE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 425, 10 June 1870, Page 3

MINING INTELLIGENCE.

(Communicated.) BaMNOCKBURN DISTRICT. Pipeclay Gully.—The miners lately employed on the reefs at the Garrick Ranges, have coble down for the winter, and several have set in tunneling and sluicing in this gul y. The centre of the gully from the Kawarau RiverUo the foot of the range is occupied, and miners are making fair wages, and from the head to the foot all eße m satisfied with their earnings. The claims on the Deep Leal are also paying good wages. Claims here are worked either by tunneling,np ; byJivoans of whip and whim. The All Nations Claim has one tunnel over fifteen hundred feet in lenjgth, and the ground is then blockel out by cross drives, the wash is four feet thick, and the run from one hundred to one hundred ami fifty feet wile. Smith’s Gully.—The sluicing claims here are paying handsomely, and shareholders appear to he wc'l satisfi d. The same may be said of Adams’s Gully, which is occupied by, from thirty to forty minors, settled down in comfortable huts. There is abundance of cheap coal in this locality there being two pits in full operation, one in Adams’s, called the Welshman’s, the other in Smith’s Gully, and owned by Mr. Alexander M’Lougblin Sluicing at the Gentle Annie and the Kawarau Gorge is carried on with great 'energy and perseverance. Owing to the late rains there is a full supply of water in the races, of which the liUners eagerly avail themselves to make up for the scarcity during the summer mouths. From the Gorge to the Gentle Annie there is a settled population of about one hundred Europeans. But few Chinese miners are at work in this locality, the water being Almost exclusively used by the race-owners themselves. At the Gentle Anuie the large tail race brought up hy Henderson, Cameron, and party has been completed, after twelve months’ labor. The last wasbing-np in the claim yielded over ninety ounces of gold, being the result obtained by two men for three months’ Sluicing, A third share in the above claim was lately sold for £l5O. There is some splendid sluicing ground between the Roaring Meg ami the Gentle Annie, and water could be had from the former at a small outlay. There are about fifty Chinamen at work in the Gentle Annie Creek, higher up than Cameron and party’s claim, and they appear well satisfied with their earnings. There are several sluicing claims in full operation on the flat between Edwards’s punt an I Gibbs’s hotel, and the shareholders are making good Wages. This large flat \vould afford employment for a great many tnore miners were it not for the scarcity of water. Alexandra, Mining matters are at present almost at a standstill as far as regards the claims on the Molyneux, owing to the flooded state of the river caused hy the late heavy rains. The race-owners too have cause to grumble. The breaking away of their races through the heavy floods that have occurred has not only entailed much expense, but a great loss of time into the bargain. The dredges are all idle, and must remain so until a considerable fall takes place in the river, Which it is to be hoped they will not have long to wait for. The reefs at Butcher’s Gully and at Conroy’s have been protected until the spring, when work will be again resumed. Black’s. Mining matters are progressing favorably in this district. The sludge and drainage channels are being pushed a-head, and, when these works are completed, there is not the slightest doubt hilt that a large quantity of ground on the flat will be worked to advantage. Those employed in sluicing at the present time are, generally speaking, making very good wages. At No. 3, the Deep Load party will shortly re-commence work, the necessary material for doing so being now on the road. A ■party has been formed for the purpose of bringing in water from the Manuherikia Water-race Company’s race for sluicing purposes, and there is no doubt but that they will be successful in their speculation. The men forming the party originally Worked the ground, and are consequently well able to judge of its payable nature Drybread. The sluicers here are doing remarkably ■well. Not only have they plenty of water but there also appears to be a considerable quantity of payafde ground. At Devonshire and Tinker’s, and, in fact, throughout the district, things are to all appearance very healthy, and the miners seem perfectly satisfied with their prospects.