MINING NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2044, 23 November 1869, Page 2

MINING NEWS.

The Alexandra correspondent of the Tuapeka Timet writes :—ln my last, I gave you and account of the reefs in the district, and stated that the shareholders of the Butcher’s Gully Reef intended sendinc a sample of quartz to the Ida Valley Mining C >.’.' mill to be crushed. The sample is in bags ready to be sent off, and in my next I hope to be able to give you the re ult Parties here say it will yield from four to five ounces to the ton ; should that prove correct, the shareholders will immediately erect machinery of their own. Iverson and party are sinking a shaft to catch the reef at a low level. It is considered by competent judges to be the best defined reefs in the district, Bendigo Gully included. There is a party formed to test a reef at Tucker Hill, about half-a-mile from the township. The cap of the reef can be traced for 300 yards on the surface, and the shareholders are sanguine of success ; I hope in my next to be able to give a good report of their doings. At the Upper Nevis, work has been resumed for the season. This is one of those diggings which, from its exposed position, can only be wrought with safety during the suipmer. It consists of a succession of terraces, which are sluiced from the surface When water is plentiful it pays remarkably well. At present the supply is full enough, but serious apprehensions are entertained that the season will be a dry one. This opinion arises from the feet that the suow is disappearing from the ranges much more rapidly than usual, and when that supply fails it has little more than the rainfall to depend upon, which is very precarious indeed. At the Bannockburn the deep leads are reported to be shewing very well. Several of the claims have bottomed, at a depth of 100 to 130 feet. The population is 100 Europeans, and fully that number of Chinamen. Barry and party, at the quartz reef claim on Garrick range, have got their tunnel in abont 70 feet, and under the present contract 60 feet more re i ains to he driven. The stone is visible upon the surface, bqt jt is not at likely |;o he any more than a leader, conscqiiendy jhe is sure to be found not far distant, The stone, a white fiinty co uposition, looks remarkably well; in leed, the gold specks are perfectly visible to the naked eye. The sluicing claim at the Manuherikia Gorge, known as belonging to Blackwell and party are obtaining excellent returns ; three shares have lately changed hands, and the last sold, realised close upon L4OO. Mr Lowe of the Gpllpway Ration, some short time since made a purchase" at a las figure ; the claim has since returned to him the whole of his outlay, and is at the present yielding him ha. ds’>me returns, and I am credibly informed that the present shareholders are netting no le>s in weekly dividends than from Lls to L2O per week A quartz reef discovery is reported in the Wa aka district, but nothing reliable has transpired respecting it. The exact localit, is unknown, although it is spoken of as being situated about ;h rty-five miles from Bendigo Gully. The report which is givm simply for whet it is wqrth> is that the reef crops up for about twenty yards along the surface. It consists of a hard white quartz, closely resembling a crystallization, encased in a dark-blue rock, and so far as an opinion can be form dit averages from 14 to 18 inches in thickness. According to the current report, the lay differs slightly from any of the Bendigo Gully discoveries (east by northeast having been stated as the direction.