BLUE SPUR MINING NOTES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 381, 12 August 1874, Page 2

BLUE SPUR MINING NOTES.

Slaicing afc the Blue Spur for the last few weeks has been almost at a standstill, owing to the frost and snow blocking up the water races. Work will, however, be resumed vigorously as soon as the frost disappears. Deep sinking operations are still being prosecuted hi some of the claims. At the Otago Co.'s No. 4 claim the gutter has been proved m their deep ground, and they are still driving, with excellent prospects. This company have a ten-head battery on order from Messrs. Kincaid, M'Queen and Co., of Dunedin ; also a turbine wheel capable of driving forty stampers. It is the intention of the company to put on that number at some future time, as there is but little doubt thewhole of their ground below the present sluicing level will at some time or other b& put through the mill. The Nelson Co. expected their machinery from the same makers' foundry this week. They have been occupied for some time in excavating a site for it out of the solid rock at the foot of Jacobs Ladder. On its arrival they will immediately commence to erect ifc on the site prepared. This company will also use a turbine wheel. Iron pipes will be used for conducting the water from the race above Morrison and Co.'s tail race to the wheel — a rather expensive work for a small party of men to undertake, but they appear to have every confidence in their prospects. This company are driving a main tunnel from the ! site of their battery, and intend laying down rails and hauling the trucks up the incline ,by their water power. This will no doubt be a more economical method of working their claim than sinking shafts ; but very few of the claims will be enabled to adopt a similar plan, owing to the depth of the ground in th& centre of the basin. The North of Ireland party, on the Munroa side, are still driving. They have got through, the loo3c wash and are now in hard cement, similar to the other claims. On the bottom their prospects are good. When they have proved their ground they will most likely sink a new shaft in the deepest part, and then commence to open out. They intend crushing a few tons of cement at the Gabriels Gully Company's battery Bhortly, and will no doubfc soon erect machinery of their own. Tho large area of ground held by this company would justify them in wscting a fifty-b,e,a,<i

* battery, should their ground prove payable, of which there is no doubt. Tho wash raised by them from their prospecting shaft was sluiced into the main tail races by a run of boxes taken alongside the shaft, and had the ground continued as soft throughout as that first bottomed -on, this would have been a very easy method of working it. Shares in the company have risen amazingly in »alue since the bottom was reached, and should the claim throughout be as gooJ as tho email portion already prospected, the shareholders will require still higher prices for shares than what is at present asked. Messrs. Hales and Hinde are washing-up, and will most likely, when that is completed, proceed to prospect the bottom of their claim, which, on account of its centerl situation in the hill, should be rich. They anticipate that the whole of the cement in their claim will pay to crush.

The Wetherstones cement is to get another trial. Messrs. Squires and party have applied for a mining lease of ten acres of ground, and they intend thoroughly prospectiug.it. Some splendid gold has been obtained on the edge of the cement at various times, and there is no reason that this ground, which is similar in many respects to that of the Blue Spur, should not be equally payable if worked in a methodical manner. It has already been tried by a small party of men, who succeeded in proving its auijtferous nature, but they worked it in a rery primitive stylo by blasting the cement and sluicing it with a small quantity of water, and by using a tad race far too short to reduce the cement, without which it is impossible to extract fche bulk the gold. No doubt Messrs Squires and party, who have machinery at their command, will thoroughly prospect the ground, which> if proved payable, will tend to induce miners to further prospect the made hills which intersect the country from the Blue Spur to Mr. Coombe's celebrated claim at Manuka Creek. Already similar ground has been applied for at Waitahuna, and it is now being thoroughly teßted by Messrs. Mark and party, who are well known as the prospectors of the Gabriels Reef, and who, nothing daunted by the nonpayable nature of that speculation, still hold faith in the mineral deposits of the district, which they are doing much to develope.