Gold-fields Intelligence.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 2, Issue 76, 15 June 1868, Page 144

Gold-fields Intelligence.

XN lAT.TERS. - (From the Thames Advertiser, 2nd June.) -The Loch Earn; claim owners,, we are happy to ;Say, are continuing to turn lout' ireim|trkably‘rich'‘qu'airt2f, having on ■ Saturday 'last; struck another rich leader, or rather series of leaders of extraordinary richness. This is now we believe the seventh leader that has been struck, from all of which very rich gold has been got. This claim, which has only been worked since the beginning of March last* contains six men’s .ground, and judging from the rich quality of the stuff, already taken out,- and also the first-rate gold bearing leaders that are being opened up, pro- . mises to equal; if hot indeed to surpass, anything.yet found on the Waiotahi Greek, We congratulate the fortunate shareholders on the golden prospects before them, and all the more so when we consider the short time the ground has been taken up, and the ' consequent small amount of work that has been got through, The gold found

on. this claim is also of a superior quality-—the holders having, we un- ' derstand, had a few specimens crushed (about 80fbs) at Spencer’s berdan, which yielded ozs, of the value of i? 3 17s 10|d oz. From the nature and number of the rich leaders running through the claim, the owners expect to come upon a reef ere long, when we fully, believe that something truly astonishing will be the result. A sample of quartz from the Lucky Hit claim, on the Karaka, was crushed at Bull’s one-stamper machine on Friday last, with very satisfactory results. The specimen. comprised lOOlbs of quartz, and the yield was 7dwts 12 grains of retorted gold. The party have fifty tons of the quartz ready for the machine. The crushing was a rough sample from the heap, which had been lying at Bull’s for some two months., The claim is now worked by Sturgeon and party.

The Democrat Claim, oh the Karaka, comprises eight men’s ground, Several drives have been put into the ground, and several very thick leaders exposed.., From . one of these three hundred weight of quartz was crushed in their own machine (Smith’s patent,) about,a.- month ago, and yielded eight and a half pennyweights —though the gold was invisible to the naked eye. They have likewise seen gold in other drives, but at present they have done no more crushing, as the machine has to be turned by a water-wheel now being made. The trial-crushing mentioned above was done by ..hand, and was so laborious that the shareholders decided to crush no more until the wheel is got ready. The names of the shareholders in this claim are Messrs Gunn, M‘Andrew, Hill, Kirkwoods (2,) Smith, Kirk, and Harvey.

. Armstrong’s claim, Waiotohi, contains six men’s ground, and has been worked for four months. The main drive reaches a length of 70 feet, and a shaft, has been put in drives 20 feet and 25, feet leading therefrom under the spur. A second' drive has been cut into a length of 30 feet, with cross drives .from/thence to the leaders in . the maiu drive. 'One of the leaders consists of a solid body of quartz, from which a considerable quantity of .stuff, has already been taken, • A shaft in _ the main thrive reaches 15 feet, with a

drive from thence, in which leaders forming a continuation of those above, have been opened. The party are in expectation of striking the Rising Sun leader frpm the shaft'drivel There five .drives oh. tbie. ground and from each good looking stone.has been taken. The ground is of such- a .nature that no: slabbing . is required, and a : great saving, of labor and: expeDs.eia consequently effected* A : shaft has been ; commenced on the .lower ground, .with 1 at view qf connecting the two There! are some-50 or 60 tons of stuff inreadinessforacrushsngbutthewaht of machinery in !the;heighbqrKqbd !prdvents the nature of'the yield being tested. /It:isjreported 1 that a machine ?;i ; :is- f pn aclaim near;-- so bei.‘/bb- :'• wiated;;" V—; / H v FrpihfTapu- Creek some .gratifying pews jduring’the : !:/we^i^specting/:tbeyield' ! :bf' /the Southern >Grosß,:Glaim ; ■! the .grouifd ,is •:: situate! Frpsl v wps taken up shortly after the. latter,,

bat the dispute pending between the owners, of that ground prevented its working in earnest until within the past -few weeks. During the week the party have struck the Lord Nelson leader in a shaft they have sunk on the claim. They have obtained .some very rich specimens of quartz, and have washed no less than 6 ounces to the dish out of a mullocky leader. . (New Zealand Herald, 2nd June.) Mr Christie, has sold a quarter share in Auntfs claim for i>2;200, Mr Hunt himself being the purchaser. We have been reliably informed that on the 21st ult., after the sale was made, quite one

thousand ounces of gold were taken out of this claim in the space of a couple of hour’s. The place where it was taken from was a patch where the leader was most extraordinarily rich the gold in some pieces of the stone forming veins of three-quarters of an inch in thickness. During the past week upwards of 1,600 ounces of gold have been brought up by the steamers Tauranga and Mdse from the Thames. The Bank

af New Zealand received 860 ounces, S6O being from the Kurunui, 160 from the Long Drive, and 40 in small parcels and about 100 ounces from, the

All Nations claim. The Bank of Aus- 1 tralasia has received between 700. and t 800 ounces from the Middle Star, . Tookey’s and various other claims. j The Earl of Pembroke, who is at, present on . a yachting excursion , through the provinces, paid a visit to , Shortland (Thames gold field,) on the ( 18th ult., in the chartered schooner ( Albatross. The Albatross, Captain | Braund, anchored off Tararu Point during the morning, and the young Earl landed soon afterwards in order to visit the Shotover and Kurunui j Company’s claim together with the | machinery irr the neighborhood. A handsome building has been , erected at Shortland for the Union j Bank of Australia. There is ample < accommodation afforded for the usual | departments; also for gold-buying and . smelting. The Bank of New South , Wales is about to erect banking pre- : mises at Shortland. A thirty-roomed house is about to be erected at Shortland, which indicates not . only the prosperity of the place, but the want of extended house accommodation. The various iron foundries in Auckland are unusually brisk : ow.ng to the demand for the erection Of quartz crushing machinery at the Thames gold-fields. The amateurs of Otahuhu celebrated the Queen’s Birthday by holding a concert and ball in aid of the Diggers’ , Hospital at the Thames. After the i concert the hall was cleared, and , dancing was kept up until an early hour. i -

The quantity of gold exported from i the Province of Auckland during the t quarter ended March 31st, was 8,405 I ozs, value, £26,476; of which 6,050 . ozs was exported to Great Britain, ; and 2,355 ozs to New. South Wales. t Three tenders were received for the , construction of the wharf at Kaueranga, t on the 22nd ult., by the Provincial 3 Govement, and we believe the lowest , tender, that of Mr Gadman, has been accepted; so that the people of Short- ’ land will soon have the necessary act commodation for their, shipping.

IMPORTANT MINING DISCOVERT.—NEW . PROCESS OF AMALGAMATION. / (From, tie New Zealand Herald,, 6th June.) Qua difficulties at. the Thames lie less ; in the cost of. . crushing of stone than with the. difficulty of extracting the gold from the quartz when crushed.// / ; ; / Itis needless to remark that one oi . the . most importaht questions ofthe i day is, how .are we to catch our fine i gold ?. . Our, extensive, quartz reefs *• teem with the finest gold; v ouk sturdy, f And enterprising;miners have it, as it \ were within"them grasp; they see ii : they, know/it alas \ after using the best ineans at their dis- - posal for;separating it from its ; matrix, > it but r.too frequentiy. vanishes • away •- and *, leayes:!-!.bht/faiht/triabes*! behind ~ When s w;e l stances one ox, two ou u cestper tqh!!!ar< obtained-fromsquartzywhich,promisee s more than double, aye, and teni time! 3 that, amount, and when.; moreover y?( 3 float up6nr:tlie! surface!; vpf ' th( t water, it obvious ito" everj ») thinking mind that the ordinary pro-

cess of amalgamation is not suitable for the Thames gold, which is of so fine a quality as to elude as it were the grasp of the mercury as now employed, and to float away over its surface Science and art would seem to have failed hitherto in devising the best means of securing this fine gold, at least in quantities sufficient to remunerate the miner.

We are happy to observe, however, that experimeatalinquiry into this important subject is being zealously prosecuted, and we have, strong grounds for believing that a perfectly new system of Amalgamation will very soon be introduced to the notice of our mining population, and one which seems, so far as it has been tried, to grapple successfully with the difficulty. We have been informed that the new [system is likely to prove less expensive than the old method, whilst, at the same time, it affords the greatest possible certainty of securing the finest particles of gold. •It may be gratifying to our fellowcolonists to know that the discovery has originated amongst ourselves, and that the greatest difficulty hitherto encountered on oiir Thames gold-fields is likely to be overcome by the ingenious discovery-of an old fellow. colonist. We allude to a discovery recently made by Dr Aiken. Experiments have proved that the whole of the gold contained in the stone can be saved, and we may further state that the expense will not increase in proportion to the amount of quartz operated upon. Indeed, as stated above, the new process of amalgamation will be less costly than the old one.