SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 288, 24 July 1860, Page 3

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

We have Adelaidejournals to the:^2nd instant. ;:■•■. ..:. :; .•./:.-. ,-.:■.■. .'.

The Mines of the Far North.—lt is now about Wo inorilhs sincea paity, consisting of Messrs. A. Frosty Griles, and Alford, started from Adelaide for the locality in which so much mineral wealth'has been discovered in the far North. . -The locality they made for was Yondamuttana, distant from the city about 450 miles, and from Port Augusta' about 150 miles as the crow flies, but by the ordinary track .about 240 miles. As the result of an interview with Mr. Frost, we are enabled to furnish the public with the following particulars. Two sections have been ieased at. Yondamuttana for their mineral qualities, lying south and. north of each other.' On the southern section, the lode at the centre of, it crops out of the surface to the height of three feet. It is there, for,a ,length of about thirty yards, twenty-seven feet in width, and gradually on either flank of it harrows down to one foot in width, where it disappears beneath the surface. This lode consists principally of green carbonates.1 The dip j of the lode is nearly perpendicular. On the northern section, there are four lodes running north and south, and one lode running east and west. They consist of red oxides and.red and green, carbonates. Another spot has been discovered close by these sections, for which an application to lease has been put in where the same kinds of ore hive been met with, and some malacliitea as well. The dip of the lode at this spot is also perpendicular, or nearly so. From the neighborhood- of Yondamuttana, j Mr. Frost and party proceeded to Nepowie,: a spot about eighteen miles north of Chambers's Mine at the Moira. There were ob- j served at that place large stains of copper ore in. the rock, and a lode indicating a gdod amount of ore. This locality the party surveyed. They then proceeded on their way back to Chamber's Mine, and found that one shaft had been sunkfand had come upon water at 60 feet; Another shaft, had been sunk from 35 to 40 feet, and water was showing. A good amount of copper ore was being brought up.; The party then went down to Wheal Blinman, about 120 miles from Port Augusta. Thelode there dips to,the east; and was found to be from six inches to ten feet wide. Mri> Frost and party raisfid two tons of ore in' one day. at this spot, and the ore looked to be good —say from 40 to 45 per cent. They then went to Appeanilla, wljere the water has been sunk upon at 54| feet, and about 40 tons of ore have.been raised, looking; very rich and good. Thence the party proceeded to Port Augusta, arid :;toofc ihe steamer to Adelaide. Mr! Frost^sjtatefif ihal thWldls^ trict about Yondamuttaaa, and Ghambers's :Minevis ponrideraibly: -elevated above the sea; 'The lights b^ing cold and frosty, but the"days hot^would seem1 tp corroborate fiis opinion. MJniU, however, fc district is .rise to it is very easy, a T tramway might Easily be made Jthrougli iVom Port Augusta-to the- metalliferous district so recently discovered. It might be taken, he thinks, either east or west^of Boffte ranges that lie in the direct line, or % oip in the ranges if preferred, '^hel principal difficulty snch a tram would have to surmount would be a few creeks, and they are pot so much creeks as broad water channels, some of them nearly a mile wide, the banks easily descended and. mounted by a bullock-dray, •and, the< depression of the bed of them, whicbr is stony, not more "than from five to ten-feet below-the general surface of the country. In: the creeks are .many, gum "and other trees, which would serire for fr3ijes ? ;girders^ and sleepers, ibr the. 'rails. So that, all things considered, the.formation of a tramway- in Mr. Frost's view would be a matter easily accomplished.— Sydney ffwald.y --y'r. -. ■'■■'■:".-...-.'' -i'■'..:. ■;): . . ;.: