MINING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17688, 28 July 1919, Page 7

MINING.

: Durmg the year ended December 31 ' i J^co^f 33 * Gold Company » treated ,188,998 tons of ore and the gold . and silver so d realised £387,065. Interest ■ (unhiding £3110 -noome tax deducted there- ■ from) amounted to £23,282, and £4491 was ' received from a neighbouring mine for ore inadvertently mined by them in previous years, making a total of £414,838. Expenditure in New Zealand and London, in- . eluding development work at mine amounted to £215,562, leaving £199,274, and was brought in, making £261,709 iJour quarterly dividends of Is each free Snni^ , av< ? been P*"" 3 ' amounting to ±.aa,i«.L, equal to 4s per share, or 20 per ctnt, free of tax; £42,851 has been rel served for income tax in London and New Zealand in respect of 1918; £16,724 has > been written off for depreciation on plant , and machinery, and provision made for > mine development suspended during the war. After all appropriations the balance remaining was £52,953, which the directors recommended be carried forward. " Since the date of tho accounts to April 19, 55,184 tons (of 20001b) of ore have been treated yielding £89,597. A dividend, No. 1037' of Is pec share, was paid on March 1 absorbing £24,795, and a dividend of Is per share will be paid on June 2 to holders on register May 8, free of tax. As stated in , tho report issued in 1917, on account of the difficulties in obtaining labour and supplies, all development work below No. 11 was suspended in February of that year, and development work in othej parts of tho mine i was greatly curtailed, and the restriction lias continued up to the present time. During the year under review only 3391 ft were , driven in new ground, as against 10,849 ft in . 1914. At present labour is still scarce, ' and coal for the C pump is not available, so work below No. 11 cannot yet be started, but, as scon as it is possible development [ work will be undertaken energetically with > the view to increasing the ore reserves, , which have been greatly reduced during the , past three years. In this conection £50,000 • J have been allotted to a special mine de- , velopment account. Tho manufacture ot r the new pumping plant which was .refused . by the Ministry of Munitions in 1916, is now p being proceeded with, ,but it will probably , cost more than double the original estimate, in consequence of the increased cost ' o£ labour and materials.