KARANGAHAKE MINE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 29 January 1908, Page 28

KARANGAHAKE MINE.

A SENSATIONAL REPORT. (FSOII OtTB OWN CORRESPONDKNT.)

AUCKLAND, January 23

A mild sensation was created on the Stock Exchange to-day by the appearance of the following report upon the Karanga-hake mine in the Herald' from its Waihi correspondent: " I paid «. visit of inspection to. the Karangahake claim, which adjoins the Comstock United and the "Woodstock section of the Talisman Consolidated. I found the manager (Mr Koss) at the company's office, v and on making myself and my mission known to him be at once produced from the safe several pieces of quartz showing dabs and blotches of gold, informing me that these had been obtained from the gold-bearing stringer in the winze (this might more aptly be termed a prospecting shaft of winze size), sunk from the surface on the hill formingpart of the company's area, and in the earlier days known as the Stanley cleijn. Some of the stone, Mr Ross stated, had been brought down that morning by the men who had oome 'oft shift. Being an elderly man, and having, he said, already made three or four visits to the upper workings during the day the manager presumably felt that the tax 'of clambering up the steep hillside again would be too great, and he handed me over to a young fellow employed on .the property. The ascend was certainly trying, but we ultimately reached our goal, and on the old tramline, -at one time used by the Talisman Company, and some 50 yard's down the hill, I found the prospecting shaft. Rounding the mullock and some quartz taken out (a piece of the latter showed a little gold), I made my way down the ladder into the shaft, where I found th» afternoon shift at work. The shift consisted of one- man, who volunteered -the information that his mate bad not turned up. I intimated that I had 1 seen the manager down below, and had come up with the object of seeing the stringer from which the picked stone and specimens recently reported bad been obtained, also anything else of interest. A good deal of fossicking about on the floor of the shaft followed, but our joint- efforts failed to locate this particular stringer. Several bits "of encouraging quartz were broken out, and_ some carried mineral indioationß, but nothing in which gold could be seen was met with. The material on the sides end floor of the shaft was mullock, intermixed with quartz veins, the formation apparently running about north and south. Some 1400 ft further down the hillside a drive is being put in froan east to west, the object being to get under the prospecting shaft— a matter of 130 ft to 140 ft from the starting point. This I did not inspect, but was informed by the manageT that the drive was in about 20ft in very bar* country. Mr Ross added that good diskprospects had been obtained m the drive, and that he expected to cut » large body of quartz as well be-fore the arift reached the point under the shaft. The identity of thi3 lode an 3 the reason why its- Intersection was anticipated was not given. Summed up it may be said that from what oan be Been at present the true value of the olaim a3 a gold mining proposition oan only be ascertained by further levels." The first effect of this lepoif/wafl to cause a rapid decline in the shares, which fell from Is 9d to }s 2d (sales). Ai the mid-day call, however, » recovery set in, and business pm dooAjA sit t$ 1« £4