MINING.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5473, 11 October 1878, Page 7

MINING.

There is considerable excitement regarding au important discovery of, antimony ore at Langdon's, about nine miles from Greymonth. Several leases have, been applied for. Tho discovery was made some months ago, but the value was not known till Dr. Hector’s analysis of ore was received, which is as follows; July 19.—Ore received per Captain Palmer is antimony sulphate, with 84oz<, of gold and 36ozs, of silver per ton. Send a Jarger sample for verification, as it is a very valuable ore if it maintains this quality, worth (say) £350. per ton., August 12.—The last sample of antimony ore has 81ozs. of gold per ton, whicli is chiefly in the quartz. Part of the second sample is quite equal to first. —J. Heocoi?, In making, a survey of the new road at; Mohikmui, in 'Duller County, the' surveyor struck a, coal seam five feet thick two miles from the township. The coal is bituminous and excellent in quality. It is easily accessible, and may be brought to the port at small cost.

Eroni Hokitika we learn-that a discovery has been made of alluvial gold about twentythree miles south of Boss, which is making some talk. The prospectors are said to have obtained encouraging return?, but it will take a few days to determine the extent of ground payable. Several parties have set to work. The locality is a new one, and is only a mile and a-half from Bowen-road. \ At a meeting of the directors of the Golden PoiufGold-miniug Company, held at the office of the legal manager, Mr. Ledger, on Wednesday last, a report of a very satisfactory character was read from Mr. J. E. E. Wright, who has lately visited the company’s mine near Pictou. It was-resolved that an engineer from W. Mills’ establishment should proceed to the spot and select the be<t site on which to place a engine of an ample power for the work required to be done. Instructions were also sent to the mine manager to proceed at once with the sinking of the shaft.’ A telegram was also forwarded to Auckland for a pneumatic battery. Some private letters wero read speaking in high terms of tbo prospect of the mine.

Mining for gold appears rto be pursued very systematically and successfully in Otago just now. One of the visitors to Wellington by the Claud Hamilton, Mr. H. J Cope, of Macetown, Lake Wakatip, showed us on Sept. 23rd some exceedingly well executed working plans of the Homeward Bound, Maryborough, and Tipperary Companies mines there. The plans are really very interesting, and besides the tisual ground plan there are also cross sec’ions taken at various distances in the long tunnels or adits, showing the actual width, inclination, and appearance of the reef between the walls of the fissures forming the lodes in these mines. The mode of working and timbering, and also of lowering the quartz to the crushing mills by means of a series of inclined tramway, are also shown. Judging from the plans, they represent extremely well defined and developed lodes, and when the preliminaries incidental to such a mountainous country have been overcome, the facilities for working should be very considerable. There is ample water-power for driving machinery, the ground can all be. taken out by means of adits or tunnels driven into the mountain sides, while the transport of ore and material can be all effected by self-acting appliances. Some of the specimens of the quartz and the results of prospects or washings of small parcels of pounded quartz and casings would show these mines to be extremely valuable. We believe that Sir Julius Vogel, Mr. Krnll, Mr, Walter Johnston, M.H.R., and other Wellington residents arc largely interested in these mines. Until we saw the plans we scarcely thought that quartz-min-ing had been wrought .up to such a systematic state of perfection by our enterprising neighbors in Otago, and they certainly deserve to be successful. Another interesting exhibit shown us by Mr. Cope, was a number of specimens from the celebrated Virginia Consols Mine, on the Great Bonanza lode. The specimens of the ore show respective values of from twenty to one thousand dollars per ton. They contain both silver and gold, the former being in the shape of a chloride. Mr. Cope states that he procured the specimens especially from the mine in California so as to compare them with material of a similar description found in some of the quartz lodes at Macetown, and which in structure possess many of the characteristics of the rich quartz lodes of Nevada. The altitude in both cases is said to be alike, a’ fact well worth consideration by parties exploring the great mountain ranges of New Zealand in search of minerals.