MINING.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 190, 18 May 1872, Page 3

MINING.

Tookey Tribute (Snowden’s). —A crusliof twenty tons of slone from this tribute was finished and retorted yesterday morning, at the Mannkau Battery, but the result was a poor one, being only four ounces and seventeen pennyweights of gold. The stone was taken from a big blow in the reef, and nothing was seen in it before it was sent to the mill, so that nothing very good was expected from it. Moanataiari. —Since the last crushing, things have been going on very satisfactorily indeed in the mine, and good quantities of picked stone are to band towards the next clean up. The main tunnel, too, is progressing favourably, and is nosv in very good working country, witli quartz showing in small stringers and patches through the face. The crosscuts from this tunnel to the No. 3 and 9 leefs will be started in a few days. The dispute as to the mullock on the beach between the Long Drive and this conmany has bean settled, and they are going to take home each of the large heaps lying there, and in future each company will run their own mullock out their own side of the tunnel. Yankee Doodle. —The intermediate level drive is on to the reef, which shows good prospects, and is being pushed along it to 1 connect with the winze, which is down to the required depth, and in which the reef is five feet wide, showing good prospects. In the drive, the lode is about two feet in width. Windsor Castle. —The manager has commenced to slope on the reef, which continues to look very well indeed, some excellent stone, showing gold freely, having been taken out, some of which was biought down to the office of the company. The lode is from twenty inches to two feet in width. Crushing will be started again as soon as the necessary timbering is done, when the manager expects to be able to keep up a constant supply of stone. North Devon. —A manager (MrSpratt) has been appointed by the diiectors to work this mine in a proper and systematic manner. He is going to abandon the shaft which is sunk in one corner of the ground, and is going to work from the old Okavita shaft, which lie has logged up. and e'ected a windlass over it. This shaft is much more centrally situated than the other, and is nearer to the strike of the Sons of Freedom lode and others which sun in that direction. The tribute has been given up, and the mine is again wholly in the hands of the company. The prospects of tin’s ground are certainly veiy good, its portion with regard to known gold-beavmg lodes being firstclass, and no doubt, under proper management. it cc i be made a payable mine. All Nations. — An improvement is noticeable in the crushing which is going on for the company, the plates showing up very well indeed. The manager reports that the improvement is a general one, no particular part of the mine being extra rich, but nearly all the workings show up well. Nonpareil. —The specimen lode has been met with in the intermediate drive on the lode, and the manager has opened out on it, and reports having taken out a fine parcel of about fifty pounds weight vf specimens, and that the leader looks as well as ever. Coronet. —Communication between the shaft and the old workings of the Dauntless claim has at length been effected, by which means the workings are now thoroughly drained. Work has, however, been suspended for a lime, as numbers of the shareholders are backward in paying up their calls, and until the money comes in no work will he done. Unicorn. —The new manager of this mine, Mr Wilson, has altered the method of working for some time carried on in the mine. Besides the operations he is carrying on on the leader recently in the hands of the tributers, and which turned out so very richly, he is about to push on the main adit level further into the bill, the appearance of things being in favour of another lode being near at hand. He lias also stopped work for the time being on the reef which was recently opened up, and from which a crushing took place. Watchman. —The low level tunnel of this company, is now making good progress, being nearly through the hard dvke through which they have been going for some time. They are now in for a distance of two hundred and ten feet. W est Coast. —More specimens are to hand from the lode worked ir.> this ground, there being- about one hundred and fifty pounds altogether, and a good paddock of stone ready to send down to the mill. This company has come very much into notice lately, and not without cause, as they seem to have a most excellent show in their ground, the lode worked on having fine hacks for them to go into. Crown Prince. —The leader is increasing in size as it is followed under the flat, and the prospects continue excellent, gold being visible whenever any stone is knocked down, and the precious metal can be seen at any time by examining the quartz which is in the paddock ready for the mill. A crushing will probably be commenced shortly at the Manukau Battery. Alburnia.— The manager reports that the workings of the Whan having become flooded since work was stopped in that mine, they are now overflowing aud letting the water into his mine to such an extent that he cannot work in his lower levels at all, besides which the water coming in like that does a great injury to the workings of the mine. In order to stop this it will be necessary for the Whau people to bail the water out ot their ground anil keep it dry. This could easily be done without much expense, as a day or two in the week would serve tc keep the water down sufficiently. Central Italy.— Work is proceeding well in the shaft now. They are driving from the lower level in towards the un derfi'e of the Nonpareil lode, and tin country 's very good. A chamber ha: been opened out also, for the purpose o putting in a diive to intersect the loch already passed through in the shaft,. ii order to open out a block for working out.

Golden Calf. —Bailing, has been going on steadily and with good results, the water being considerably diminished, and by the beginning of next week they fully 1 " expect to be able to go down below and get the workings cleaned up, as no doubt they wi l ! be a little dirty, after being under water for so many weeks. Bright Smile. —Sinking has been carried on during the last week, and though the inflow of water has been very heavy indeed, they have been able to master it sufficiently to keep on working. Yesterday evening, however, they had to stop, at least for a time, as the horses cried “ peccavi.” The No. 2 lode is much improved in appearance where being worked, and looks well for good crushing dirt. Dixon’s No. I. —Communication has been effected between the tunnel and the winze down from the upper working, and the mine is in consequence well ventilated. The winze was met with at about ten feet from the tunnel, and the reef is here five feet wide, and looks very well indeed, gold being visible in various parts of it, but more paiticularly in the footwall. The whole of the lode looks like good payable crushing dirt. This is on the western side of the tunnel. To the eastward the reef is also being followed, but does not look quite so well, having nipped in to about afoot, but of course it is expected to make again. This level gives backs of one hundred feet to work out between this and the sixty foot level, thus placing immense blocks of ground at the manager’s command. The tunnel is between forty'' and fifty feet from the western boundary of the claim, and two hundred and eighty feet from the eastern boundary, that is at the present level, but as both the east and west boundaries run obliquely to the lode, th« higher the slopes run the more reef they will have to work out. Besides these b'ocks, there is a large section of the lode still standing above the sixty feet level, this section being one hundred and forty feet long, with forty feet of a back,, and the aveiage width is about four feet, and the stone is calculated to be worth one and a-half ounces to the ton, so that this will add great value to the company’s property. There must be at least two years’ work before the manager from this level, and where the next will be of couise cannot yet be fixed. There are two defined runs of gold in the mine, one running into the Rose and Shamrock’s, through Dixon’s No. 3 ground, and the other c'oso to the Whau claim. The total length of the tunnel is seven hundred feet, and there is a fine tram laid down throughout, four hundred feet being laid with double rails. The stone can be delivered into a large hopper, from whence a self-acting tramway runs direct to t’ue battery, which will find ample employment for some time to come.