CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 104, 2 May 1878, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

RICHMOND HILL MINING COMPANY. To the Editor of the 'Evening Mail.' Sir— ln your issue of 30th January, which has only just reached me, the Directors of the above Company have published their second annual report, and, a 9it somewhat affects myself as well as the shareholders, I deem it my duty to hand you a few comments thereon. The Directors say, "The late manager not having sent in, as requested, an estimate of the average value of the ore * * * they assumed the results of his numerous trials as the basis of their estimate, and as most of them showed silver to be present to the amount of several hundred ounces to the ton they considered 2500zs as a moderate average." That the Directors had no foundation whatever from me for arriving at this conclusion the following extracts, I think, will clearly demonstrate. On the 12th December I reported, "I am rather afraid there will bo some some difficulty in dressing it (the ore) up to 2000z9 per ton," and at the same time gave the results of thirteen assays, the yields of which were 1, 3, 8, 19, 22, 30, 32, 114, 163, 205, 405, 1208, and 1551 ounces per ton respectively, showing nine results less than, and only four of " several hundred ounces to the ton," but unfortunately for the Directors' case three of these were from one " small piece " (which I was careful to inform them of.) Four grains of the best of it gave 15510zs ; ten grains, also picked, but not so pure as the four grains, gave 1208ozs, and 100 grains not picked (i.e., a fair sample of the " small piece,") gave 4050zs per ton. On the 20th December I reported—*' A stope 20 feet long and about six feet deep has been taken out from bottom of drive, producing a few tons of mixed ore and mallock, the value of which it is impossible to estimate until further dressed." By the 4th July, 1877, but subsequent to the drawing up of the Directors report, I had got the ore sufficiently sorted to enable me to definitely inform them that there would only be about five tons of ore, containing about 40oza per ton, and three hundredweight containing about 300ozs per ton, and that the refuse picked out of it was practically worthies!. Trusting that I have not trespassed too much on your apace.— l am, &c, J. L. Morley. i Melbourne, April 15, 1878. P.S.~ The accuracy of the above may be verified by a perusal of the correspondence in the Company's office, the whole of which the Directors will no doubt be happy to place before those who are interested in the matter. ;