OUR GOLDFIELDS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 303, 23 December 1898, Page 3

OUR GOLDFIELDS.

OHINEMURI SYNDICATE.

' (By Telegraph-Own Correspondent.) ; A great improvement has taken t place in the character of the reef at t the Ohinemuri Company's shaft. The . Smile of Fortune reef, which has been t driven on 196 feet north, has com- ; pletely changed, and the quartz ebars „ a most promising- appearance. The . j lode is over four feet wide, and the . manager is now hopeful of very sfeort- . ly meeting a run of good gold, and ; the appearance of the' stone justifies . ; the hope that the No. 1 lode has also . greatly improved in character, show- , I ing that the gold-bearing channel of . | country is at hand. ,| WAIHI MONTHLY REPORT. • [ The ore coming to hand from the , i Martha lode at No. 4 level is of first- ; j class quality. The last cut through J.the reef showed it to be 32 feet, of . j compact ore of good quality. One j foot is mineralised, and the Vest free , I milling. The crosscut is 36 feet j back from the face. At this point the . "horse" forms the foot wall, otherwise the lode would be much larger from wall to wall. The Welcome lode in this level up to the end of last month was fully 15 feet thick. It was cut off by country rock, but a lode was picked up by a crosscut and proved ito be IS feet wide. This when driven upon turned out to be quite a separate lode, and will exist parallel with the other right back to the main crosscut where the lode was altogether 39 feet wide. It seems probable two distinct lodes will be found under No.-4 level when the next one is opened up. The Welcome lode east at No. 4 level is five feet wide, and the ore is of low grade. The Magazine lode, same level, is two feet wide, and Avorth at last assay 14 dwts IS grains per ton. The Martha lode at No. 4 level at last crosscut was 44i feet wide. Three feet was mineralised ore and 4H feet oxidised of fair quality. In the 'western end the lode is 16 feet wide and of medium quality. The Welcome lode at No. 3 level in the stopes is 14 feet wide in the eastern and 16 feet in the western face, and ore of good quality was obtained the whole width. In the eastern end of the level the lode is only two feet wide and yields low | grade ore. Tn the crosscut at No. 3 I level from No. 1 shaft a lode was cut i five feet wide, composed of first-class | ore," which when assayed yielded loz i ITdwts 17grs of gold, and 2oz Gdwts j 12grs of silver per ton. The crosscut i for ten feet beyond the lode shows a ; conglomerate mass of quartz veins and | eountrv rock. Beyond this a solid body of ore made its appearance worth lOdwts logrs of gold and l?,oz of silver ' per ton. The manager believes the i five foot lode to bo the Welcome, aud (the lnree one the Martha lode. There ; must be a very large body of ore here. jas it was cut twenty feet sooner than I was anticipated. At No. 2 level fair ! ore has been got from the Martha ; lode in the stopes. At this level the ; Welcome lode is 3* feet wide beyond No. 2 chamber, and only worth 4rlwfs of gold -per ton. ' In the stories the lode is IS fee+. 22, 3, If, and 8 feet wide in various faces, and nil the ore is of first-class quality. The Victoria lode also supplies ore of first-c^s^ i duality, and is from S to 9\ feet wide int. No. 1 leroj. At the adit level th<* Welcome lode will average four feet, and is worth close on an ounce of gold per ton.