LATEST MINING NEWS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 185, 20 September 1872, Page 6

LATEST MINING NEWS.

THE RUSH TO CHARTERS TOWERS

Regarding the new rush in Queensland, the following sonsaxional telegram ■ from Townsville appears in the Melbourne c Argus 'of the 28ch ult.: —" A new alluvial rush has been opened at the Charters Towers, where the sinking is from ten feet to forty feet, and the return 6oz. to the load. The lead has been taken up to the extent of a mile long, but the water is a mile away. . G-ood reefs have been deserted for the alluvial mining, and wages average from £4 to £5 per week. 1000 men are engaged at alluvial' mining, and 2-000 on the reefs. A dispute occurred over one claim, in which one man was''killed daring a fight. Intense excitement prevails, and the place is said to be second only to Ballarat. The escort takes 10,000 ounces. Provisions are plentiful. The distance of the goldfield from Townsville is ninety miles. Theßendigo ' News' writes:—"We are"informed, on good authority, that a miner at Sebastian has received a j letter from his brother, also a gold ' miner, who is in. the Northern TerriThe writer says:—"No such alluvial diggings have been found in Victoria.<as there are here. I sunk a hole fourteen feet, and got 158ozs. of gold off the bottom." • The rush to the new diggings at Charters Towers is causing excitement. Th ey are alluvial,- and the sinking is only four feet. Later accounts say that the reports regarding the diggings are much exaggerated. A very large number of the miners at Reefton, according to the local correspondent of the ' Grrey Eiver Argus,' are leaving that district for the new rush to the-Roper River, in Northern Australia. The s.s. Omeo sailed from Melbourne for Townsville and Port Darwin at the same time as the Tararua, taking 216 steerage and 'forty salocn passengers. Other steamers were also sailing full of passengers for the new diggings ati Charters Towers, near Townsville. An auriferous .reef has-been, discovered at \ arn Creek, near. Port Darwin. The gold is seen on the surface, and is well defined. Twenty-two claims have been already marked, aud others have been applied for. The rush to Charters Towers has been checked. Late telegrams state that the lead has run out. According to the ' Bendigo Advertiser,' there is not much reality in the Roper River movement:—" The number of Sandhurst people who, are ' really going ' to the Roper is increasing every day, while numbers of persons who are ' thinking about it' is very great. • ' Parties ' are formed easily enough, consisting of. 5 six young fellows,' or,'* ten of us,' or ' a lot of us chaps/ contributing at the rate of £25 pf'r head each, for the purpose of chartering a vessel 'to go rouud.' When the time comes for ' action ' in this : ' going round' business, somehow or other the bottlc-d-up enthusiasm—or. the £25 —has vanished into thin air. The party does not go to the Roper n.fi er all, and the members of it are found very' soon excusing themselves for stopping in Sandhurst in various fashions. One says, plainly enough, ' Oh, hang the Roper. ? Another says, ' I'd go if I was sure that one would not have to carry a pistol to shoot those enormous mosquitoes.' There was a meeting yesterday again, of ' gentlemen anxious to fit out,' &c. It was held in the Bath Hotel, and the number .of gentlemen ' anxious to fit out'—with the view of setting out—was almost as great as on the previous occasion. But nothing definite came of the meeting, and we think it is pretty certain that nothing definite will come of it, or of any similar meetings at the present time. We understand that Mr.. .Tames Ross aud a small party of three or four others willstart soon from' Sandhurst for Port Darwin, and with this expedition we think we Lave to content ourselves, for the present at least.

The Melbourne 'Age' states:— "The departure of a vessel from Hobson's Bay with 150 passengers for Port Darwin, looks very much like the settmg 7 in. of a rush to the diggings which are. imagined to exist somewhere

within 200 miles of 'Ealmerston., In order to ! establish ; a rush it is not at all requisite that there should be any evidence of the. existence of a .goldfield. The very haze of. "doubt with which a rumor is surrounded acts as a.lure. If the precise facts were known, .nobody would go;, but when it is .supposed that there may be more than is revealed, the. desire to penetrate the mystery is,' with' 1 many, irresistible." The 'Age' gives a caution to those intending to proceed to'the Northern Territory of South Australia,. that there is no definite information respecting the existence of gold in that region

G-old nuggets and pieces of' silver ore have been found on the west coast of-Vancouver Island.

Some miners in California, said to be working " under the guidance of the spirits," got 13,000d015. worth of gold recently.

The last month's gold yield in Sydney shows an increase of oyer 10,000 ounces. ,

The export duty cm gold has been reduced in Queensland to Is. an ounce till July, 1873, when it will be 6d. per ounce for the next year, after which it ceases altogether. A Ballarat reformer proposes that a treadmill be erected in the gaol to work quartz mill, where poor miners' quartz shall be crushed by prison labor—the treadmill and the quartz mill to be in separate apartments, so' that the auri sacra fames may not have a felonious development. We take the following items of mining intelligence from the ' Tuapeka Times' :—" The last crushing of the O.P.Q. Company, Waipori,. resulted in a yield of 58 ounces of gold for the fortnight. G-ood stone has been struck, and it is confidently anticipated that the yield of the next crushing will be exceedingly good.—All the claims at the Teviot are m full work, the low state of the-river facilitating-, mining operations.-—OJayton and-party have commenced prospecting in Gilbert Clarke's paddock. They "are sinking on the. reef, at a short. distance'" from the fence.—A number of Chinamen have set into work on the south branch of the Tokomairhvi river."

. The exodus.from the Cape diamond fields continues, as working- for diamonds at the price now paid for them does not pay. The export of gold from Victoria during the second quarter of 1872 ■ shows a considerable falling off as compared with the same period of 1871. The - following are . the ' results of three crushings, at the. Government battery, of stone got from the surface in three several parts of Mr. Farqiiharson?s Imp romptu claim, Shag Valley: —lst lot : weight 2\ tons ; result, "4 dwts. ISgrs. 2nd lot, 2\ tons ; result, 7dwts ISgrs. 3rd lot, .2 tons S cwt. ; result, lOdwts. ISgrs. The .amounts of gold given are the . total yields, aud not the rate per ton. A sample from Mnilocky Grully =is now being crushed at the battery. A new rash set in last week to ground on- the southern side of the Hokitika Eiver, near Ogilvie's Halfway House, the lead being a continuation of the one styled the Ay liner Lead. It is reported that severafclaims are paying from £lO to £2O a week-per man, while others are on wash that only pays from £3 to £4' a week per man: There are about four, hundred men on the ground. "^gles, ? ' in' the 'Australasian,' says:—" There are some staunch drarndrmkers about. In,a Victorian mining township, to which I don't care to give unpleasant prominence, there are fourteen public-houses for'the accomodation of 500 inhabitants. It is wet country, and you can't travel far without spirituous consolation. Speakinoto a successful miner of one of hS mates there, the reply was ' Bless your' life, he hasn't been sober for eighteen months.' Nor has he "

The stone, lately obtained in the °/2nn P P08 ? EeQf ' StaweU » ata d ot 800 feet, has yielded 2oz. Bdwt per ton. i

> Toe Colleen Bawn Company, Car rick Range, Lad cleared up their tables alter a crushing 0 f 22 tons l.Ocwt. of stone, the return being: 230z. 20dwt of gold.- "