OUR MINES.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 13, 9 May 1877, Page 2

OUR MINES.

♦ < — - BOATM A.N' S.

(from oub special bepobteb.) THE H6PEPUL MINE. This mine hag achioved celebrity as having accomplished more in a given space of time than, perhaps, any mine in the Inangahua. In the course of a little more than twelve months it has paid dividends amounting in the aggregate to close upon £25,000, which is a trifle over £3 per 8250 th share. To a mine then which has accomplished so much within such a comparatively short period, it is only requisite to inquire into its position as regards permanency to arrive at a fair estimate of the wealth it is likely to tarn out in the future. To convey an idea then, upon this head, is my present aim, but I almost despair at the outset of being able to accomplish the tack. To ihose who are sufficiently interested in the company, nothing short of a visit to the mine can convey anything like ?n accurate notion of its extent. Speaking relatively to the surface, the Alexandra, Hopeful, and Welcome leases, occupy the southern slope of the same mountain, which rises at an tingle of about 45deg. Speak'ns* in a general wiy, it may be said thaf, the Alexandra lease starts at the base of the mountain, and extends upwards for rather more than a" third of the slope. Thence upwards runs the Hopeful lease, and thence to <ho mountain top, and it nv\y be beyond, is the Welcome ground. Having said this much concerning the situation on the surface of the three mines named, I will now deal with the Hopeful mine singly. Five tunnels or levels have been put into the Hopeful ground. The first, or highest of these can hardly be said to be a level, as it was rather a prospecting shaft put down on the incline of the reef. Prom this shaft to the lowest or No. 5 level, which has only recently been started, thore is a perpendicular depth of about 480 feet. That is, when the reef is met with in the lowest tunnel, as it pro* bably will be in the coarse of a few weeks, the mine will be proved to contain a wall of stone 480 feet in perpendicular height, by about 420 feet in length, north and south. The reef varies in width from 4 feet 6 inches, down to about 18 inches, the average width being about three feet. In this, of course, I assumo that the reef on the No. 5 (or prospecting) level will be found to maintain the same character as in the levels above, and of this there is little room to doubt. Indeed the matter has already . been placed in a great way beyond the least doubt, as a shaft is being sunk on the reef, or No. 4 level, to connect with the level beneath, and is already down 40 feet, and- at the bottom there is a magnificent body of stone over 4 feet in width running as straight as the wall of a house, and the general appearance of the reef in this shaft shows it to improve in appearance, bscome more compact and in every sense better defined as it goes down. The perpendicular distance from No. 4 to No. 5 level is 120 feet— which means upon thejhypothesis already mentioned, that when all the stone above No. 4 level is exhausted, the company will have a body of stone of varying width 420 feet long, by 120. feet in height or depth to take out before going in upon a still deeper level. But No, 5 level must only be spoken of at the present time as a requirement of the distant future, as the quantity of stone still to be taken out upon the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th levels is something immense, and will take a long time to exhaust. A singular development of the reef was met with, in the No. 3 level. The lode was followed to within 100 feet or so of the north boundary when it suddenly ran out leaving no indication of its having been pinched or broken off. \ winze, however, having been run down, on the reef from the level above proved that the. lode had merely pushed over about 14 feet, forming what is termed a " bench," and from that point its course was followed and traced right

up to the boundary of the Welcome, Again on No. 3 level the reef ran out on neariag the Welcome, and a shaft being sunk on its course on the boundary of the two leases the lode was again picked up showing a thickness of 3 feet from which some of the richest stone obtained in the district was taken. At the present time No. 4 level is being extended in the direction of the Welcome, the reef being about two feet in thickness, and tho distance yet to go to the boun« dary is sixty feet. These are as many facts as could be picked up during an hours' ramble through the mine, but after all they but very inadequately picture the mine as it really is, for stone is being broken out of several different parts of the mine, not even excepting No 1, or the top level, where there is still a fine body of reef, three feet in thickness. So far as work has yet gone it has been proved that the reef is more free from faults and ir« regularities than most of the lodes in the Inangabua, and in this light the mine is then q^ite removed from all likelihood of a sudden and unexpected cutting off of the stone. To measure the fnture, then, by the past, this Company has indeed a wonderful career before it, for so far it may be said that it but stands merely upon the threshold of its existence. I have in conclusion to acknowledge the courtesy of Mr C. Crow'ey, the mining manager, who kindly afforded me the fullest information upon all matters relating to the working of the mine.