MINING MATTERS.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1779, 3 April 1874, Page 3

MINING MATTERS.

Waitemata.t-A misapprehension has gained .currency with regard to the lode which is now being worked in the Waitemata.'by whioh we have in common with others been for some" time astray. This was in confounding the large clay leader with the main slide. ■ Its. composition is certainly what might be looked for in a slide, for it is composed of soapy clay of different hues, and. has great boulders of sandstone intermixed with it.. However, after an inspection of the mine and a careful examination of the plan, we find that this slide, or leader, its course and underlie is distinct from the main slide of the mine. : Indeed, the leader will undoubtedly be found to abut up against the slide. The leader, such as it i*, is now being worked, from the adit-level of the company's mine, and its oourso as driven on is due north and south, while that of the main slide is more east and west, but;yesterday the southern face of the lode showed a marked alteration, and it has now taken a new course to the southwest.' ■ This makes it correspond with a lode worked in tho company's mine from the Nonpareil adit-level. Indeed' rises have been put up from the Nonpareil adit 'to,this, level on a lode which is now worked out, and which was undoubtedly the same notwithstanding .the alteration in its; formation. -{Underneath the aditlevel ' the lode was composed of ; clean quartz of good rich quality, but ia cou«

sequence no doubt of some disturbance in the country the whole character of the lode has changed from the adit upwards, and instead of the quartz lode 18 inches thick, there is a band of mullock as described, whioh varies from 5 to 8 feet or more in width. Where stoping haa been started on it the lode is fully 8 feet wide and in both faces of tho drive it averages 5 feet. From this the principal portion of the crushing stuff recently taken out of the mine has come, and there is now a crushing going on which is yielding on an average 15dwts to the ton. The extent of this lode which remains intact is very great. There is a length of about 150 feet of it to be driven bh, and the depth from, the surface to the present level is also 150 feet or upwards, and if throughout it continues to yield as handsomely as it is now doing, and as previous crushings have done, there is no doubt but this reef will prove the most valuable ever opened in the mine. Wo may also mention that in a small shaft which was sunk, on the surface what now appears to be the same lode was found some time ago, and a crushing of three loads of it yielded llozs amalgam. This is of course a much richer average than the stuff at the adit is producing, but it speaks well for the prospects of the block. ThSreis not a particle of quartz observable in any of the lode at present,' but gold shows in the mullo'ok in patches. There is another lode being worked at a deeper level from the shaft, but there was nothing doing on it yesterday, ; as the men were fully employed' bceakiag out stuff from the day lode to keep the battery employed. ' Buck' Angel.—Cleaning up and re-: torting for" the Black Angel Company took place yesterday" at the Manukau battery, after three trial crushings, amounting in all to 120 tons of stone had been put through. A total yield of 95ozs lOdwts retorted gold has been obtained as the result. One' of the crushing con-, sisted of a parcel taken out of therise put lip on a block of the brown reef above the 116-feet level. This stuff yielded an average, of an ounce to the ton. A second lot .was; a parcel :of, about .60 tons ■■ taken; out of the stopes above the bottom level, and this, it is estimated, yielded an average of about l£oz to the. ton, but the third parcel was not payable, and this reduced the average of the entire crushing. There were about 30 tons in the third parcel. In tho mine there has been no more stuff broken down from the new lode since the rich find reported in yesterday's issue, nor is it intended now to break down any before Saturday, and.by that time the ri*e will be up a considerable distance stripping a fair portion of the lode. There will, in all likelihood, be another good haul of specimens on that occasion. The men m\\ be principally employed to-day in repairing the shoot which conveys the .water out of this mine through the Sons of Freedom old level which, owing to the sinking of some of the ground in its neighbourhood, has in a measure become destroyed. Old Whau.—There is nothing fresh to report from the Whau mine. The news yesterday was the counter part of what it has been for several days p_ast, and about 2801bs of rich picked stuff came to hand from the stopes on the hanging-wall reef above the main working level. , Golden Oalf.—A very fair show of gold was again ;met with'in the winze which is being s'uuk to connect' the 200feet level with the 260-feet yesterday forenoon. The connection is not yet completed, but as there is now_a rise being put up, to meet the winze, it is probable that the connection will be completed early next week, thus opening up a large, extent of the reef for stopiag. Crushing has now been going on for some tine with five head of stampers at the Prince Alfred battery with variable results. The stuff has' always been of good payable character, but sometimes it is richer than at others, and during the last day or two there has been a very noticeable improvement in the show on the plates, and in the daily take of amalgam. There will be a general oleaning up and retorting on Tuesday next, from which there is sure to be a handsome return. No doubt, when the new block of ground is opened up for work, the. manager will employ a larger crushing;, force than the number of stampers whioh are at present employed. , Obown Pbinoe. -Cleaning uj» for the Crown Prince was not quite finished last night, so that the retorting.has been postponed until to-day. The return will, in probability, be much higher than was anticipated, and is expected to amount to . 2000z5,. as■.* the result of a week's crushing with ten head of stampers at the Kuranui battery and nine days; at the Bright Smile with 12 head. Under these circumstances the return will prove a very handsome one. Our of London.—The manager has commenced driving on the hew lode discovered near the Queen of the May boundary a short time ago, n but up to the present it has only been» followed a few ■ feet, and it would therefore be premature to form any opinion regarding its probable worth. Its;course so far appears to Be parallel with.Nos. 1 and 2 reefs, but in, the face at present the lode is more than. 6 or 7 inches in width. However, it is surrounded by fine promising c mntry, and is very likely to open out wider. The stuff, too, looks of a promising character. J This lode is being driven towards the J Queen of Beauty. Driving on Wo. 2 reef in the direotion towards the City of York has been commenced, and a very favourable change of country has already set in, although a distance of only 8 or 9 feet has been driven since operations atthis side'were resumed. The lode is small, about 8 inches in widthi but the manager is confident that it will open out in the" country through which it is now ; passing. There is a distance of about 300 feet to drive on the course of the lode in the company's mine before the boundary is reached, so that there is.ample space and room for improvement.' A good many'people have been under the. impression that driving up hill on this reef was discontinued in July last because it was not deemed worth the expense. The contrary is the oase, and it was only on the recommendation of the manager that the drive was stopped then. He pointed out how the work might be more advantageously performed afterwards when the Btuff.'taken put of the, drive might be utilised in filling up the stopes at the other end, and thus save the expense of winding mullock in the first instance, and also save a further expenditure in finding other stuff and.filling in the stopes with it. Now that the proper time has arrived, and that these advantages have been secured, tho drive has been started and will be continued to the boundary of the City of York, when, we understand, the latter will take it up.. $EiNOiuu.'-rTho' crushing 'for the Manukau, although it did not show up 'or quite such a rioh yield yesterday as during the two preceding days, nevertheless male a really .splendid.show, aid as. the result of 1 24 hours'orushing.there wore 70ozs of hard amalgam obtained as against 87ozs on the previous day.

Last evening the stuff showed up again as richly as before. The manager is now oarrying drives in both directions on the lode from the point of intersection; and although these drives do not of course take the whole reef, they are much larger than usual, and turn out a great quantity of crushing stuff. A few stones were picked up in the quartz paddock yesterday, in whioh there was a fine show of gold, but nothing contained in these or any. others which have been found since the reef wan opened would indicate the rich quality of the general stuff. There is ample quartz now being taken out to keep the 6 head of stampers fully employed, and there will, we learn, be no general cleaning 'up before the end of next week.