MINING MATTERS.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1811, 12 May 1874, Page 3

MINING MATTERS.

Golden Calf.—Crushing for this com pany has been suspended at the Prince Alfred battery since Saturday, and will be resumed again to-day at the Manukau battery. There has been no retorting yet, but the amalgam and flake gold to hand are all ready for retorting, for which the manager is now awaiting instructions from the directors' meeting, which is to be held on Wednesday nex<;. There is no particular change in the mine. A little more flake gold was observed in the low level yesterday, but was,not found in any large quantity. £Ed White and Blue Teibutr.There were in all 25 tons of stone crushed for T. Brown's tribute, No. 2of the lied White and Blue mine, and yesterday a very good yield of 33ozs 16dwt» 12grs melted gold was obtained as the result. Black Angel. -Crushing for the Black Angel Company was commenced yesterday at the Manukau battery. There is a large quantity 6f stone on hand, and ,it is intended to keep ten head of .stampers employed for some time, principally on quartz from the brown reef above the 116-feet level. In the recent crushing this stuff-yielded well, and there is therefore good reason to expect similar results from the stuff now being broken out, for there is a very fair show of gold through ( it. The lode is being taken out for a width of from 6 to 8 feet, so that there is a large quantity of crushing 3tuff avail-, able..

Albubnia.—Yesterday afternoon at_ 4 o'olock the manager of the Alburnia, taking advantage of the splendid rainfall, started the full force of the company's battery, 20 head of stampers, to work, and as there is every prospact that the rain will now continue_ for some time, there.is reason to believe that there .will be a good yield from the mine this month, notwithstanding the long drought which up to the present has kept the mill idle. There is a very largo quantity of quartz ready for the mill,' and until some of that is disposed of there will be no more stone broken out,_ but a week's good' steady crushing will get through a large proportion of that which is in and around the battery ■ house, of which it is estimated that there are 200 tons. Meanwhile there is no quartz being broken down in the mine, but the timbering up of the workings is being completed, and everything is now ready for taking out stone in any quantity which may be required. At the Dixon's No. 1 side the sinking of the winze on the main reef has been discontinued in consequence of bad air, but there are about 90 tons of quartz now to grass at this .side of the mino ready'for crushing at the Ballarat and Clunei battery, and thereof itself is ready for stoping as soon as stuff is required, but at this side now as well as the other there is no place to stow quartz, and operations have therefore been discontinued. The whole mine is now in a fine way of working. The rich hanging-wall reafisnow connected all the way from the main level to the surface, a_ depth of 250 feet, and the whole lode is intact excopt one small block 20 feet in height. On the course of the new reef the drive has extended a length of 100 feet, opening it up for working, to that extent. The lode -has not been broken down, it is left standing on the hanging-wall, but in the face of the drive at present it contains stone quite as rich as that showing when it was first 'found. Tho whole of this lode is intact. It had never ojl'j:\) been worked on, never even discovered, and it is likely to prove the most important and richest of the lodes in the claim. In the course of another week or so, when the quartz

with which' passes, drives, and every available space in the mine is choked up, is reduced so as to make room, a fair start will be,made on the reefs, and we are greatly mistaken if some splendid stuff does not come to hand when opera-, tions are once fairly started. ' Old What;.—'.Che gold lodged on Saturday as the result of the tailings treated at the company's mill, and lOoozs previously deposited as the result of the

final, oleaning up at the Manukau battery, were melted together into one ingot weighing 329023' yesterday at the Bank of New Zealand;"' Taking the earliest possible advantage' of the. welcome rainfall,'' the manager started the full force of the company's mill to 'work yesterday morning, and at four o'clock in the afternoon. Crushing was commenced at the Afoanafcaiari ne<v battery with a force of 20 head. Crushing for the company may now. be said to be fairly commenced, or rather resumed, and from the excellent working order to which the mine has been reduced there will be no difficulty in keeping up a sufficient supply for both mills, or even for a larger force if it was deemed expedient to employ them. Possibly the stuff first put through at the Moanataiari battery may not be very rich, for a good deal of it consists of the cleanings up and scrapings of the worked out ground prior to filling up, but there is a splendid lot of good quartz stowed in the drives, and the reefs both look well in size and richness. There was some good gold showing yesterday in the stuff broken down from the main reef. Some time will elapse before any quantity of stuff comes to hand from the Black Angel reef, for* it is the intention of the manager to crush the stuff separately, and thus ascertain its exact worth, and this he has no means of doing until the new quartz hopper is constructed and divided into two compartments. Only Chance.—ln this mine the men have again commenoed to break out a parcel of stone for crushing, and on Saturday afternoon they came on a nice patch of gold from which 61b3 of rich specimens came to hand. The lode from which these stones came is about a foot thick, but ; there is another'lode at the back which joins on to it, and it was from close to ' this junction that the specimens .were. i. taken.