DEEP SINKING at the BLUE SPUR.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 368, 27 June 1874, Page 2

DEEP SINKING at the BLUE SPUR.

BY OUE REPORTER."

The crushing of a few tons of by the Nelson Co. at the Gabriels Gully Uattery some short time ago, with payable returns, has given an impetur' to mining at the Blue Spur which promises to add quite a new feature to mining in that locality. In place of having to record the firing of large blasts of powder, it will simply be^such and such a party crushed so many tons, with payable results ; and in place of the residents in the vicinity sueing the shareholders for the loss of their cabbage patches by the encroachment of tailpgs, they will have good cause to sue for want of sleep brought about by the continual clang of th.c stampers, and, by top andsjmil&r

means they will be enabled to maintain the credit of the Blue Spur in matters of litigation. It is our intention from time to time to report any information that is obtainable with regard to the deep sinking at the Blue Spur, as similar indications of payable gold at great depths exist in other parts of the Pro- 1 vince, and it will no doubt lead to their development. Gold mining at any great depth' in Otago has never yet been fairly tested. Geologists whose opinion has been sought have invariably given discouraging reports as to the existence of gold in deep ground in Otago. This discovery, therefore, Bhould go far to disabuse the minds of the miners as to the* reliability of such statements, and we have no doubt that the recent discoveries at the Blue Spur will lead to equally as important discoveries in other parts of the province. The following are a few particulars in regard to the work already done by the claimholders who have commenced to test the payable nature of their deep ground. THE OTAGO CO.'S CLAIM. In our last issue we reported that the OJjago Company had got splendid prospects. w£ have now to add that their prospects are improving. The company's shaft is in what is knowD-as their No. 4 claim. It is about 100 feet in depth, and is at present worked with a windlass. A main drive has been driven from the bottom, the course of which is nearly due north and south. It is from the north end that the good prospects hare been got. Nineteen pennyweights were washed from a bucket of dirt on Thursday morning. The gold on the bottom is coarse and water-worn, and is visible to the workmen all along the bottom of the drive. It is also scattered through the upper layers of dirt from which payable prospects are obtained ; and it is estimated that it will pay to crush five or six feet of the cement from the bed rock upwards. The drive from the north side of the shaft is in some 30ft., and it is being carried across the deepest part of the basin. The opposite reef has been struck in this drive, and a payable prospect obtained. A blind shaft will now be put down to test the deepest part of the ground, which from present appearances is expected to be very rich. There are some twenty loads of dirt at the top of the shaft, which it is intended to crush at the Gabriels Gully battery,, and this will be the practical test of the ground. Should it yield a satisfactory return, of which there is but little doubt, this Company will immediately procure machinery of their own to reduce the cement. THE NORTH OB IRELAND CO.'S CLAIM (MONROS SIDE.) This Company have also sunk a shaft, and reached the bottom at a depth of one hundred and ten feet, with the reef still dipping almost vertically. The sinking was of the usual nature— hard, blue cement — until within about six feet of the reef, when it partook more of the nature of alluvial wash, and continued on to the reef, which is also very aofti and open. Good prospects of heavy gold have been obtained from the bottom, and payable gold exists through the wash. Should the wash dirt continue soft, the company will not require machiney to reduce it ; they will merely run a branch race alongside the shaft and tip the dirt into it. In the meantime they will be employed slabbing up the lower part of their shaft and sinking a well, though at present very little water is making. They will then proceed to follow down the reef, and thus prospect the deeper ground. This company have a mine of wealth in front of them should their prospects continue as good as those referred to. The area held by them will give them Borne ten or twelve acres of bottom, besides the large amount of their ordinary sluicing ground. - THE NELSON CO.'S CLAIM. This Company expect their crushing machinery on the ground in about a month. It is being manufactured by Messrs. Kincaid, M'Queen, and Co., of Dunedin, and will be driven by a turbine wheel, for the driving of which water will have to be brought some 1,500 feet in iron piping. In anticipation of the arrival of the machinery, a machine site ia being excavated out of the solid rock, and a main drive started into the deep ground. A tramway will be laid, and the trucks will be hauled ur> the incline by the same power that works the stampers. It is not anticipated that there will be much water in the deep ground to contend with. This Company have great faith in their prospects, and are expending a large amount of capital to develop the resources of their claim.