('. 2.

ANNEXURE A.

SUMMARY OF REPORTS BY INSPECTORS OF MINES. NORTHERN INSPECTION DISTRICT (J. E. Downey, Inspector of Mines). Quartz-mining. Waihi Gold-mining Co., Ltd. (J. L. Gilmour, Manager).—The following is a brief summary of the principal work carried out:— No. 15 level (1,880 ft. below collar of No. 4 shaft): No further exploration work carried out. The balance of the broken ore in the Cow block on the Martha lode arch section, which was the only fully payable block opened up in this level, was drawn off. The only other work on the level was the opening-up of a low-grade stoping block, known as the Cod block, on the Edward lode. This was 120 ft. in length,"and to the end of the year had been stoped up for 41 ft. The average value of the stone was about £1 os. 2d. No. 14 level (1,752 ft. below collar of No. 4 shaft) : Shrinkage stoping on the big low-grade Trout block on the Edward lode was continued, and the whole of the block was broken out with the exception of an arch under No. 13 level, estimated to contain about 25,465 short tons. No. 13 level (1,578J ft. below collar of No. 4 shaft) : Work on this level was practically confined to stoping the Trout and Cod blocks on the Edward lode and the Ellis block on the Empire lode. Stoping on all three was completed, and the broken ore was being drawn off. No. 12 level (1,447J ft. below collar of No. 4 shaft) : No new development was carried out. The principal work was stoping the Andrewartha block on the boundary of the Waihi and Grand Junction areas. The stoping was completed, and the arch under No. 11 level removed. No. 11 level (1,301 ft. below collar of No. 5 shaft) : No very important developments to report. In order to try out the possibilities of some ore located in the Empire lode north, between Kauri and Bath crosscuts, reference to which was made in last year's report, a stope was opened out in the hope that the ore would improve as it was worked upwards, but the quartz continued low grade, and work on it was stopped in May. A crosscut was then put in to the south at 50 ft. down Rokker winze. In this a vein of fair-grade ore was cut in the main Empire lode and driven on for 202 ft., and a stope was opened on it. This will be known as the Jarvis block. On the Martha lode a rise in the hanging-wall near the company's eastern boundary disclosed payable ore for a depth of 60 ft. below No. 10 level. No. 10 level (1,152 ft. below collar of No. 5 shaft) : The stoping of Brooks block on the Martha lode was continued, and the stope carried up to within 14 ft. of No. 9 level. On the south part of the Empire lode, stoping was continued in Furze block, east and west of London south-east crosscut, on ore of payable grade. An investigation was made of the centre part of the Empire lode east and west of London south-east crosscut. Samples assayed well, but the run of ore was found too narrow to be worked at a profit. On the Edward lode further investigation failed to reveal anything of economic value. No. 9 level (30 ft. sub-level) : Ore of good grade was won from this sub-level, 30 ft. below No. 9 level, opened up from Tereki winze. This ore was stoped up to within 9 ft. of No. 9 level. No. 9 level (I,oooft. below collar of No. 5 shaft): Shrinkage stoping of a number of blocks was continued. On the Edward lode (west branch) a high-grade leader met with in driving the west wall gangway past Salmon stope was followed into the west wall for 68 ft. The ore was good for a start, but the values gradually declined, and as the lode was narrow work on it was stopped. On the Welcome lode a good deal of investigation was carried out between No. 2 shaft west crosscut and Carter's south crosscut, without revealing anything of value. The best development of the year in this level was on the Martha lode. The drive eastward in the hanging-wall of the lode into Grand Junction Co.'s ground, referred to in last year's report, was extended from 409 ft. east to 512 ft., where it holed through into old workings, some fair-grade ore being got in this final distance, while a crosscut put out north from the drive at 463 ft. revealed a good run of ore, on which two stoping blocks were opened. One of these, known as Jamieson's, is 185 ft. in length, of which 132 ft. is in Junction Co.'s ground. The other block opened up was 125 ft. in length. A good deal of work was also done on the Martha lode north section, in Waihi Co.'s ground, but nothing worth working was found. No. 8 level (48 ft. sub-level) : A block 99 ft. in length of good-grade ore was opened up on the Martha lode north in the vicinity of Bull's pass. No. 8 level (60 ft. sub-level) : Work confined to taking out on square sets the King arch on the Empire lode, West section, which yielded a large tonnage of high-grade ore. No. 8 level (855 ft. below collar of No. 4 shaft) : The work here consisted largely in mining ore from arches and caved blocks on the Martha lode between this level and No. 7 level. Some investigation of the Martha was also made near the eastern boundary, but nothing of workable value was met with. On the Empire lode north section a short shrinkage block of good-grade ore was opened up. No. 7 level (705 ft. below collar of No. 4 shaft) : Operations consisted mainly in removal of arches on the Martha and Empire lodes. No. 6 level (545 ft. below collar of No. 4 shaft) : A good deal of ore was won from the Martha lode by square-setting east and west of Bulls' south c.osscut, and from the Empire lode, west of Muir's pass, on "a sub-level 16 ft. below No. 5. A considerable amount of prospecting was done on the No. 2 reef and parallel reefs lying between the line of the Wheel filling-pass on the west and the No. 6 shaft on the east. Several stoping blocks were opened up. One of these, the Moralee Block on No. 2 reef, was 165 ft. in length, and the other, the Olsen block on Olsen reef, was 92 ft. in length. The reefs are small, but contain some high-grade ore. Some ore was also won from the H, I, and J reefs from a sub-level 16 ft. below No. 5. These reefs are small branches of the Empire lode in the western part of the property south of No. 2 shaft. No. 5 level: Stoping was continued in Taylor block on Taylor lode, but at 70 ft. up the reef became low grade, and ore-breaking was stopped. On No. 2 reef a shrinkage stope, known as Gordon block, was opened up. This, however, was nearly beaten out at the end of the year. On the north branch of the Martha lode a block known as Cornes was opened up for 280 ft. in length. The quartz here is narrow but of good grade. Surface workings: About 3,350 tons of ore was won by open-cut from the Emily block on the "Welcome lode. The extraction of ore from Merry arch on the Martha lode was completed. From the south branch, Martha lode, west of No. 2 filling-pass, some ore was also won by driving and open-cutting. To work the Martha lode at Britannia pass, an incline from surface to 20 ft. below was constructed to enable a remnant of ore under the Smithy level to be removed. No. 10 level foot-wall gangway : The construction of this main haulage gangway between No. 2 shaft and Junction shaft was completed, the total distance along the gangway between the shafts being 1,920 ft. The electric locomotive (battery type) purchased for use in this has been delivered, and a power-line has been laid to Junction shaft for charging purposes, 4—C, 2.

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