MOANATARI.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2640, 25 June 1877, Page 2

MOANATARI.

The fiold resulting from Saturday's retorting was melted at the Bank of New Zealand to-day, and was reduced to 1078ozs 15dwts melted gold. I visited the mine ibis morning in company wiL'a the manager. On reaching the bottom of the shaft I found that the contractors for driving the south-east cross-cut are making first-rate progress,, as that work is :r» now a trifle over 25 feet. The country continue first-class, and if they meet wi:L the same ground for the next two or th_\at weeks it will not take them long to oo - j.,leteHt. The contractors for putting in the north-west cross-cut have not been so lucky, however, and in consequence of the hard nature of the ground have been j forced to give it up. This work is now in about 10 feet, but, of course, it is not so important as the south-east one, so it does not matter much that the ground is hard. I next went down the No. 1 winze on the No. 9 reef. The slide is apparently going a little flatter than it has been for the last few days, and is very soft;. The reef, to my mind, looked hardly as well as it did the other day, there not being so much good mineral snowing. There was not the slightest appearance of gold, and the lode was much disintegrated with bands of mullock or crushing stuff. The No. 2 winze to the westward of the No. 1 is down 5 or 6 feet through stiff ground, and although the progress is slow it is quite as good as can be expected considering the nature of the ground. On proceeding to the face of the western drive I found that the drivers are stripping the reef. Within the last sor 6 feet the reef has made a slight dip to the southward. Where the lode was last broken the stone had a promising appearance, though there was no gold visible at all. The eastern drive is still proceeding through the slide but there is no particular change. At the top of the drive the slide is composed of dry mullock while at the bottom it is a wet sbppy mixture of mullock, quartz, etc. The No. 9 stopes have for the last week or two been rather dangerous for want of filling in, and the manager has men now employed in that very necessary work. Heldt's and Wallis' leader are looking ' about the same, and there is nothing particular to report from any more of the company's workings. Mcßarry, and party completed the treatment of about 2cwt of picked stone and specimens on Saturday afternoon at the company's battery, for the satisfactory yield of 96£ozs gold. > Montgomery and pnrty crushed 61bs of specimens for the yield of ££ozs gold.