PRINCE IMPERIAL.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2807, 12 February 1878, Page 2

PRINCE IMPERIAL.

This mine was visited tc-day. On reaching the bottom lorel to which operations at present are entirely conGued, I found that good progress is being made with the various works, and the manager will soon be in a position to resume crushing. There are about 30 tons of general stuff and 2c wt of picked stone on hand. Driving operations west or sea^ ward have been commenced within the last few days, and the iodej though it looks rather course, contains gold, and runs through a good gold-bearing channel of country. Back some dozen feet from (he face the country was tight and the lode pinched up, aud this it was

which caused the discontinuance of operations in this part of the mine some time back. The drive is 70 feet in from the cross-cut, and a little sloping has been done, though nollting in that line is doing at present. If sufficient inducement offers when some more driving has been done, it is intended to open out. The drive east was next visited. It is about 180 feet long, and where at present worked the lode is rather small, being about a foot thick. Buring the last week or so the character of the stuff has altered considerably, it having' formerly been heavy mineral bound rock, while now a good portion of the lode ii composed of gritty quartz, which the manager thinks will crush pretty well. The slopes over this drive are in good order, being pretty well ventilated, while the facilities for gelling the quartz to the level below are good. The stopes are about 130 feet long, and at the highest points are about SO feet above thj level. Up to the present it has been found that the character of the reef has been pretty much the same as the quartz in the drive below was. The lode averages from a foot to eighteen inches all through, and small parcels of picked stone are obtained frequently, especially in the upper ' portions of the stopes. In the extreme face of the drive some quartz is going off from the lode, and is striking north. This has been followed a foot or two, and as it contains gold the manager intends to prosecute further operations on it. The'; once famous- Mariner's ftef lies to the eastward, and will be picked up in the extension of the drive.