THE ALPINE MINING COMPANY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2231, 7 November 1907, Page 4

THE ALPINE MINING COMPANY.

AN IMPORTANT FIND,

l»Yom a letter received in Gisborne by a sbarehoklor m the above Company from one is ‘‘on the spot” the toll owing interesting tacts are ta'ken: The new iincl Ls oil the rich leailer following sumo above the level (No/), it heads directly up to Irishman’s Greek, 1400 feet away where many thousands of pounds worth of slaty gold in Hat slabs, from a few pennyweights up to nearly SO ounce pieces ami all covered with slato on either one or both sides, were picked up by early diggers in ISGG, and later, liver since, Irishman’s Creek has hc»ou prospected for this “slaty leader” hut without success. Above No 7 level now we have seams of gold in slate, and in a well-defined gutter, oil a dead line for where these slaty slabs of pure gold were found in the Irishman’s. When the exact angle of the rich “chutes” of gold in the leader is more determined, Mr. Thorpe will make a survey to the surface, and wo then expect to be able to locate and to work the same run from the surface downwards as wo are now working upwards and downwards from No 7 level, 1100 feet away approximately. The value ol what gold is found yet, is not. so important as the potentialities of the 1400 feet of rich gutter practically proved of virgin ground. Personally, this is all very well for a gamblo and for excitement, and of course it is quite possible if not practically certain that wo may expect immensely rich, patches between the two points; but there has been a sounder and moro important development still. Below No. 12 the stone in the south winze has widened and increased in value all the way as sunk upon, 1 and all the country is solid as can be, in the middle winze—about- 360 feet north of tlio south winze—they are now sinking, and are now down about 42 feet, the stone in this has increased steadily as sunk upon from 2ft Gin, till it is now about 5 foot good, and -values have also about doubled. The country -here, too, is splendid, solid and trim, and reefs must live down in such. Wo have all ready to start sinking on north block in No 12, about 600 feot north of middle winze; now that level at this spot is cleaned out wo can see that cap of reef is about 10 feet wide, and it bout SO feet in length, and value is well up to out grade .} ounco per ton, the country here also is good. It is now clear that wo have a splendid mino below No 12 level, with every prospect of somo years of stone good enough for regular moilthlydividends.From No. 9 to No. 12 levels the country was all broken up, and stone poor; from No 12 down the country appears to bo solid again, reefs are making going down, land stono getting richer. Anything like rich patches in No 7 will be acceptable, blit the Alpine mino will now not depend upon them so far as we can see, and such will bo merely a side issue, however good. We have now every prospect of working for a permancy, such as all good mines are made under proper management.