GABRIELS GULLY QUARTZ MINE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 285, 17 July 1873, Page 5

GABRIELS GULLY QUARTZ MINE.

It Is now eighteen months since the great quartz fever seized Tuapeka, and ground was pegged out and land applied for over largo areas. That excitement very soon passed ; nor was much money risked in prospecting on the supposed course of the reef. A little surface work was done, it is true ; but no good results followed. All, however, determined to stick to their leases and pay the rent till something turned up. Meanwhile the original prospectors of the reef, being absolutely without capital themselves, disposed of half their claim to three of the present shareholders, and then re-investing every penny so received in plant and machinery set steadily to work to develope their claim. Their progress since then has been reportedregularly in our columns ; and we may state, with regard to these reports, that we publish nothing the truth of which is not duly vouched by the manager personally. After getting fairly to work, the Company joined several claims on the same line of reef to southward in driving a tunnel from Walshq Gully at the lowest possible level. The tunnel is now in over 400 feet. Later on the Clarka Hill Prospecting Company was formed, in which the shareholders in the G. G. Q. M. Co. hold half the shares taken up. Their tunnel will prospect the ground east and west of the line of reef between Gabriels and Wecherstones gullies. The softness of the ground hitherto driven throught by the Company is very encouraging for the future. The rock is highly pyritous, and any reef found in it will most probably be payable. The claims north of the Gabriels Gully Company on the line of reef hive been idle for many months ; but we trust that they will now amalgamate to drive on the course of the reef from the low level at which the Clarkes Hill Company will shortly strike the lode. Returning to the report of the Gabriels Company, we consider it matter for great congratulation to the district that the first quartz reef started at Lawrence should have been able to return dividends and do the amount of dead work this Company has effected with stone averaging only 6dwt. 2gr./to the ton. We believe that this fact is a far better guarantee for the future prosperity of the Company than would have been a higher averagn yield obtained at a larger expense. Apropos of this point, we would quote from an American authority (Raymond). Speaking of the Liberty mine, at San Antonia, Nevada, which had been crushing for 12 months (September, 1868,) with 4 heads of stamps, ore averaging £23 per ton, he says : " The high yield of the Liberty ore is not a measure of the profit of the company, but (as I have remarked in speaking of Reese River ores) an indication of the high cost of mining, transportation, and reduction. The attempt of the company to carry on this enterprise by skimming the richest ore out of their splendid mine lasted about one year, and has been wisely abandoned. The mill has been stopped, and the mine is now being thoroughly opened, so that when reduction of ore is resumed it may be upon a scale larger and certain enough to allow expenses per ton to be decreased and ore of average richness to be worked profit. In this way a largo and p^oigerous business will

doubtless be established on the only sound vrining basis — reduction of ore in great quantities at low rates." We draw from the report one conclusion which it would be well for prospectors here to keep in view — viz., that the trial tests of small samples of quartos from a reef, whether taken from the surface or from a depth, are of little or no value as a basis for estimating the average yield from the lode. We have seen numerous specimens from this reef showing coarse gold freely, and the manager has at different times obtained prospects (carefully weighed) from several places in the reef varying from 4oz. to 16oz. to the ton — the latter prospect was obtained from a sample of rubbly quartz in which no gold was visible to the eye. Another conclusion, valuable to prospectors, we have drawn from personal inspection of tho workings at the mine is that surface work (trenching) is of little value in most places in this district in prospecting for a reef. Along fche 250 feefc on the top of the reef which has now been worked out by the Gabriels Gully Company, only in one place could any body of quartz have been found by surface trenching. Where the reef does run to the surface, it is in the shape of one or two small leaders, about an inch or so in width, which would have hardly been detected in trenching, nor have been distinguishable from the numerous flat leaders common everywhere. The Gabriels Company, which consists of 9 members only, cannot be too highly commended for the course they have pursued from the first opening out of the reef of supplying accurate reports of the work done and the general prospects of the Company, whether these prospects were good or indifferent, thus proving the possibility of a Limited LiabilityCompany conforming not only to the spirit but to the letter of the Act without injuring the success of the company. We trust and believe that the Gabriels Gully Company have a prosperous future before them, and that by following the steady course they have hitherto adopted they will prove themselves to have been the true pioneers of quartz mining in the Tuapeka district. MANAGERS REPORT. The manager of the Gabriels Gully Quartz Mining Co., reports as follows :—: — The Company retorted on the sth inst. 160ozs. 17dwts. from 638 tons quartz, and 52 ti»ns of trial stuff crushed in 679 hours. The last fortnight's work was on 150 tons of stone averaging Bdwts. to the ton, crushed in 160 hours. The battery has been running very little more than half time, aa only the north atope was being worked. The Company have now reached the boundary of the claim going north, and after crushing out the remaining quartz at this level will crush for Clayton & Co.— the adjoining claim, in which they hold one half interest. The tunnel of the Clarka Hill Co, is now in over 450 feet, and progressing rapidly in good driving ground ; and the hands presently employed at the reef will be fully employed in making a winze on the lode to meet the tunnel, and in making other preparation for work' at the new level. To review the work done at tho present level since Nov. 25th, 1872, when the company commenced to crush, 200 feet in length along the course of the reef in the drive have been proved payable, varying in wit Ith from 2to 10 feet ; 3,000 tons of stone have been crushed with the following results :—: —

The total yield in ounces from the above was 9370z. 7dwt. 17gra,, which realized net value £3512. The sum of £833 6s. Bd. has been paid in dividends, and 900 foet of lower levels driven in conjunction with other companies. The whole of the reef has been taken out wherever it has been worked, and the gold seems pretty evenly distributed throughout, though where the reef is very wide the large quantity of bars of slate, <fee, crushed with the quartz proper, lowers the average result. The Company possesses a powerful ten head battery, the capacity of which, from the above figures, appears to be fully 500 tons per month when in full swing. The quantity crushed is estimated by weight — the number of trucks delivered from every part of the mine being carefully tallied. The turbine, a re-action wheel, on Sfcirratt and Whitelaw's plan, made by Messrs. Kincaid, M'Queen, &Co., has given great satisfaction, and has proved extremely economical, the ordinary quantity of water used being rather under one Government head of 40 inches, or say 60 cubic feet per minute. The Company have every confidence in the permanence and payable nature of the reef, and prefer to wait till the next level is fully opened out, so that when they recommence steady crushing, the stone may be procurable at the least possible cost, and in large quantity. The opening out of the upper level now worked out (as far as present operations are concerned) has strengthened the belief that the reef is a true fissure vein, and will gain in definition and payableness in depth. At the surface the reef consisted generally of a few scattered leaders, all, however, giving fair prospects ; a few fret lower down {numerous leaders came dropping in on the hanging wall, all more or less auriferous. For the first 30 feet descending, the reef is bounded by red colored clay slate, and has a strong underlay ; but a little lower it enters the blue pyritous slate, the bed-rock of this district, which seems for the most part to rise in the hill, conformably with the shape of the ridge. In the blue slate the footwall at once becomes well denned and regular and loses its underlay. Going south in the main drive the blue slate gradually dips towards Walshs Gully, and stone has been found as far aa the blue slate remains in the drive. This dip probably does not extend far, but in face of the heavy outlay incurred at present on the lower tunnel, the Company has determined not to prospect any further in this direction. The next adit should command a very large amount of stone, and will thorougly test the character and extent of the lode.

450 500 400 500 150 .000 tons averaging d$ dwi v » 4| „ » >» 01-0,, » »» " „