The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1836.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 107, 8 May 1896, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1836.

Fer th» -skis- that lack* a___-ta_.c_, ftsr th» wrong that -tied* wilatanw, 2*nr tiw .-tare in the diitaucß. Aai the g»od that w. can (to.

The reports we receive almost daily announcing the floating of some mine on the London market, with a considerable amount of working capital provided, naturally raises the question whether there is a reasonable prospect ol these ventures giving to the persons who embark in them a fair return for their money. And upon the final answer to this query will depend the continuance of the era of prosperity which has already set in here as a result of the increased activity on our goldfields. It is, of course, utterly impossible to form any reliable judgment upon the matter at the present stage—no business is so speculative and uncertain as gold-raining —but some guide, to the probabilities may be found in the facts connected with the development of the mining industry at Johannesburg.

Avery erroneous idea prevails pretty widely that the ore in the Rand mines is very rich, and the reefs generally of enormous size. This is entirely a misconception. For the purpose of comparison we cull from the Johannesberg "Star" of February 15th, the monthly analysis of the gold production in the Witwatersrand district for the month of January last, which has been compiled by the Chamber of Mines -.— "o__ °S -B^gMS Company. g'gS 2*£Z 5*5 _. / 7 s§s«-a:£s&-_ - <^ 1 I— ————— & _. d. & a. d. Chamnd'Or. « ? 18 11 8 City and Suburban .. "281 1 7 10 0 15 7 Crown Roof «Mg j- .J ? Durban _loo.__»oort .. 112 10 17 7 Ferreira 35i0 2XI 2 1 16 9 G.l-e«hui. &.:: :: ™ ? 12» °jg \ Geldenhuisl-nR .. •• ?JB6 1 8 1 Ginsberg .1 J*» g 1,5 ,? Gl.nc_.-r__ .. .. _. 7071 1060 16 11 George Soch (Amg-d.. .. ***-.£* Henry Nora .. .. 3754 2178 01 Jobai_ne.bu__.Pio_.eor ... 2440 Jumpers g» « 8 0 9 1 Jubilee. 56j0 x 2 5 0 10 II Lancastor -- ,„,,. . n o n o a Langlaagte Istat. .. „ Block-- .. b982 °10 2 ° ' J MayConso.-da.ed7. - 10250 1 2 4 9 14 i Meyer and'Charlton - 696» 10 10 10 1 $"s*** j Sf ?S Ii I" SewChi—jDj^g .- 3MJI B^o6^ Newßtetfoißtoin Estate.. 2423 1 610 017 4 NowKHonfloateindJecSß) 5168 1 7 0 010 1 (Jan. 96>> 3095 1 4 1 0 S 3 KcffOrosn . - 4767 "33M Now Coma?" " 2961 014 10 1 0 3 x£ri 2574 2 1 6 212 6 Orfon '-• 7240 0 4 118 0 Pr.nce__E-t_-.te V. .. 27 1110fi 010 9 Paavl Central (Tailings).- -„,--„ , iB ° Robgin B S oPn and-font<!ill - 10715 2 5 10 1 11 3 -klbburr " " so° 13 80 9 8 Setter and Jack: - 10<°° 1 8 40 17 0 StonhODO " '■ mt 12 4 017 4 Unite- M R (Roodept. .. 6285 111 2 013 0 Vanßyr.Gold_v_i_.e- .. |880 112 50 9 4 Wai-m-r - 5148 2 9 0 116 wXito?GoYd Mi_.es ~ J 5919 1 6 5 012 8 We may supplement the information "contained in the foregoing table by a reference to some of the reports of leading mines. In the Johannesburg "Star" of February 15th appears the report of the annual meeting of the City and Suburban Company. The average yield of the ore from this mine, it will be observed, is only £2 3s 5d per ton, and yet the Company made a profit of ;£i2i,686 on the year's working. ;£63>75° oi which lt Paid away *n dividends and £56, 135 in purchase and erection of So new stamps. The result was obtained simply by putting through an enormous quantity of ore. The Chairman of the Company, moreover, mentioned in the course of his address, that owing to the monopoly in the sale of dynamite which had been created by the Transvaal Government, the Company had paid to the gentleman holding tbe monopoly and those interested with him (equal to a dividend of 25 per cent) in excess of the amount tbey couid in the ordinary course have imported their dynamite from Europe. We will next take the report of the Elandslaagte Company, a smaller concern, which states :

During bhe half-year 17,962 bona of ore have been mined, 15.087 tons of which wera put through the Fraßer and Chalmers' stamp mill, the taiiings being thereafter breatod in the ordinary way by bhe cyanide process. The remaining 2,875 bons were pub through bhe roller mills and treated with cyanide by whab ia known as bhe dry process. The resulba obtained were as under :—15,087 tons of ore treated by the stamps yielded 2dwb Bgr per ton ; 13,050 tons of tailings treated by cyanide yielded 2dwb 21gr per bon bailings, or 2dwb 12gr per ton ore ; 2,875 tons ot ore treated by roller mill dry process, yielded 7dwb 6gr per bon. The cost of treatment on the whole was l&s lOd per ton. Tbe Company made a profib for the half-year of £1,200.

In the address of the Chairman of the Paarl Central at the annual' meeting held on April 4th, he said :—

«* We have been dealing with a 12dwt property, and in the lighb of our latter day developments of the Witwabersrand, a 12dwt proposibion is nob to be despised for dividend earning, provided a mine ge.3 a fair chance in the way of development and equipment." Wibh regard to the size of the reefs in this mina, the Chairman said . " The sixth level has been reached in the main incline shaft, and the Soubh Reef leader ab bhab depbfa assays loz 18dwb for a width of 18 inches. At No. 2 incline a depth of 690 feeb has been reached, and though the vein ia rich the reef is still

narrow, bub there ia every reason to believe thab we shall soon encounter wider bodies in this shaf b."

Two quotations from other reports will suffice to indicate the size of reels which are considered promising at the Rand Goldfield. The report of the Jumpers Deep states :

In No. 1 shafb we struck ab _> depth of 901 ft bhe south reef of the main reef series, assaying loz lOdwb over a widbh of 2fb 4in. The work in bhis Company is proceeding satisfactorily, and we hope shortly bo be bhrough bhe remainder ot tbe main j reef , series." The report of .the Langlaagte Deep with an issued capital of £650,000, Bays: "Two shafts are being sunk, and have reached respectively the depths of 776 and 9251b. In the latter tbe south reef waa struck aba depth of 817fb, assaying over 22 inches, sidwb ; 18 inches, lOdwb; and 3 inches, 87dwt. We expecb bo sbrike tho main rest some 90 feeb below bhis. We may place in contrast to these figures the returns from the Hauraki goldfields. It would scarcely be fair to take as typical of the whole the Waihi mine, with its huge reef giving an ounce of pure gold per ton over a width of thirty feet, but the annual report of the Inspector ofjMinesfor.the twelve months ending March 31st last showed that the 45,003 tons of stone crushed from mines in the Ohinemuri district gave an average return of £3 17s 6d per ton, and the 17,942 tons from Coromandel gave an average of about £1 15s per ton. The following are the averages of some of our prominent mines:— Karangahake. — Woodstock, £4 8s 6d and £6; Crown, £i 7s 3d and £5 . Waitekauri, £4 18s and £6 12s 9d; Waihi, £3 ns 7d, £3 us sd, £z 5 s 6d» £3 7 s 8d > and £4 3sThames.—May Queen, ioz, £2 16s; Victoria, to ioz, £2 15s lor general quartz ; Waiotahi, ioz; Moanataiari, ioz. Coromandel.—Hauraki, -£21 per ton last crushing, but it has been £60 and even higher. Kuaotunu.—Kapai-Vermont, about £4 13s 8-fd per ton. All over the Hanraki peninsula there are large reefs yielding low grade ores, which if worked on a small scaie would never pay, but which, the South African experience leads us to believe, would prove fairly remunerative if the capital requisite to deal with the stone in large quantities were available. All the conditions here are very much more favourable than in Johannesburg, where water is scarce and high rates rule for every article used in the development of mines. Even native labour, it is said, costs, when all charges are reckoned^ almost as much as white labour here, and when the value of the service rendered is taken into account, twice as much. In view of these facts, it will, we think, be generally admitted that there are good grounds for believing that the New Zealand v mining boom " is amply justified.