REEFING INTELLIGENCE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 214, 7 March 1872, Page 5

REEFING INTELLIGENCE.

GABRIELS.

The prospectors or Cornish Co. are still tunnelling from the lower level, and calculate they are now within about eighty feet of the reef.

Clayton and Co., No. 1 North, have let a contract for driving in the direction of the reef from the fifty-one feet level of the shaft recently sunk. This will be tedious work, as the strata is a hard schist rock.

The Amalgamated Co. are still prospecting in their claim on the northern side of the gully.

Kitto and Co, have let a fresh contract for continuing the drive in their claim on the northern side of Caledonian Gully.

The Gabriels Rock Quartz Mining Co. — The result of the crushing of two and a half tons of stone from this company's claim, No. 2 line of reef, by the Waipori battery was 14dwts. 16grs. of retorted gold. Tt may be here remarked that no gold, or indication of it, was observable in the stone. This result has encouraged the company who took up this claim to further prospect the reef, as will be seen by advertisement, in which they call for tenders for sinking a shaft. This is a well-defined reef, and is so situated that it can be cheaply worked. The Citizens' Reef Co. should have held a meeting on Tuesday evening, but it lapsed, owing, we suppose, to several other meetings occurring on the name evening. lAMJIERLAW. During the past week a considerable number of shares in the Devils Creek Quartz Mining Co. have been taken up in Lawrence, and a steady demand for shares, we are informed, is being made in Dunedin. Tt is expected this company will*be floated in about a month's time, so that those desirous of investing some of their -capital should make early application for shares. The amount of deposit on each share is only one shilling, it being the desire of the projectors to thoroughly te3t the reef before going to any large expense for machinery. The prospects from this reef far surpass anything we have yet known in Otago. WAITAHUNA. ' On the Junction Reef, Hanson's party (the prospectors), at a forty feet level,

struck the reef after driving ten feet. It proved to be not more than a foot thick, while the prospects obtained were not sufficiently encouraging to warrant the party in going to any expense in erecting machinery for crushing. Owing to -the non-success of this party, the other claims on the line of reef have been abandoned.

CANADA REEFS.

Coombe's party are progressing but slowly- with their tunnel (which has reached a distance of about forty feet), owing to the extremely hard nature of the rock to be penetrated, blasting being the only possible method by which it can be broken out. As they estimate the distance they still have to drive before reaching the reef at at a hundred feet, the party have several months' .work still before them.

Watson and party, after sinking a shaft fifty-six feet and driving in thirty-six feet, to cut the Ocean View line of reef (but without success) have commenced to sink again, at a distance of a hundred or two hundred feet further north, with the hope of being more fortunate.

The Alexandra Co. are raising stone which promises to yield fair returns to the shareholders. The water supply admits only of five heads of stamps being used, for crushing. The Ocean View Co. have, after driving fourteen feet, struck the reef in their new shaft. Its thickness has not yet been ascertained.

Julius' party have not, so far, succeeded in finding the reef in their claim. The}' are at present engaged in sinking a shaft, which has now reached a depth of sixty feet. Two or three parties are employed in prospecting the Canada and Oxford lines of reef, which, in addition to the Ocean View, interersect Table Hill. A late crushing from a claim on the former, held by Thompson and party, yielded about four pennyweights to the ton._ The party are at present sinking, with the view of testing the reef at a greater depth, the trial crashing having been taken from

near the surface.