Our Mining Reporter.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2583, 18 April 1877, Page 2

Our Mining Reporter.

PIAKO.

I visited the low level workings of this, mine this morning, and was surprised as well as pleased at the improved appearance of the No 2 reef—especially in the big face —since my previous visit. The face now shows 20 feet of solid quarts containing a considerable quantity of mmeral, while specks of gold are to be seen occasionally. As this space is becoming rather unsafe to work in without timbers the manager was preparing to put in two sets of large heavy timbers so as to render all secure. In the small drive on the same side of the reef a little gold is to be seen occasionally. About six feet from the face of this drive the water is coming in in a perfect shower, though close up to the face it is, comparatively speaking, dry. In the drive on the other ! side of the shaft, running north to the Queen of Beauty, the reef does not look so well as in the large face, and less gold is visible. The cross-cut from the Grahamstown side of the shaft has not yet tapped the No. 1 reef, and the country appears to be getting harder than erer, if such a thing were possible. The cross-cut is literally proceeding through solid basaltic rock.

The face of the drive is now some feet past where the lode should have been cut if the dip remained the same as when it was last seeu, and the surmise expressed in this column some days ago, stating that it was probable that the reef might be "heaved" out of its course by the hard country, appears to be correct. S toping on the reef' in the No. 5 level is going ahead, and the manager thinks that the stuff' broken down will pay expenses if nothing more. When on the surface I was shown sqme specimens from the large face in the bottom level, which showed a considerable quantity of gold, almost' invariably in—to use a mining te.rm— " splats," about half an inch in.diameter. This appears to bo a peculiarity about the specimen stone from this lode. At the battery the stuff first taken out is bow being crushed, but of course nothing much can be expected of it for some time until the crushing has had some days' run,- / and it will probably take a week or ■' two before the quartz, which is expected to yield * well, will be crushed. -The manager lodged ia the Bank of New. Zealand yesterday a parcel of gold amounting to llozs 13dwts as the result of a final cleaning up at the - old mill, how the property of Mr Perry.