MOANATAIRI.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2573, 6 April 1877, Page 2

MOANATAIRI.

r Thd arrangements for carrying on stoping: /operations are now completed;',and J3toping.is^proceeding rigorously. The •hot fired this morning; in the, stope brought- down lOcwts of specimen*, in most of which. 1 the "run of gold could be seen, though taking them as a whole they did not look so well as, the rejsult of some of the- previous breakings down, including yesterday. This in Very probably owing, not to the stone decreasing in richness, but to its being dirty. The face is rather obscured from,the name cause, though a little cleaning shows plenty of gold in the stone.-. The majority of the specimens broken down to-day were large blocks of stone^and when broken at the i battery they showed a considerable quantity of coarse gold, and one block weighing about l£owt. is. said to have been as rich as any yet taken out. The gold appears to get coarser every day, but tbe, stone appears .to -. maintain the same' quantity of gold and color as it has done since the lode crossed the clay band. The face of the stope is now 5 or 6 feet from the clay band, but the manager has men employed in making a higher stope from behind the clay band up towards the face. Driving was started yesterday afternoon, and is being pushed ahead as rapidly as possible. The engine shaft; is now down a distance of 31 feet. Good payable crushing dirt is being broken down from the cross reef and the All Nations leader. The following telegram, with reference to this morning's breaking down, was sent to Auckland by the manager this morning :—" lOcwt specimens, broken down this morning. Good show in face." Robinson and party have finished their crushing at the company's battery. They obtained 10 ounces retorted gold.