AUCKLAND MINING INDUSTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 304, 22 December 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

AUCKLAND MINING INDUSTRY.

A SATISFACTORY, OUTXOOK. £

IMPORTANT STATEMENT BY TKB > GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR. f

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON this day. '■' Mr. J. Hayes, Inspecting Engineer toi the Mines .Department, has just returned to Wellington from an official visit to the Northern mining district. Questioned by the "Star" representative as to the prospects of the gold-mining; industry, Mr. Hayes said that, taken all round, the outlook was sornewhai; brighter than on the\ occasion of his previous visit some six months ago. The Waihi mine is, of course, far and 1 away the largest producer, and tbe ora bodies at this mine are very large indeed. The erection of the large new, pumping plant —now in progress—will enable the company to sink to much; deeper levels than have hitherto been worked, and the new winding plants (which is shortly to be fitted up) will also give facilities for an increased output. ;

The boring done at the Waihi Grand Junction mine lias been satisfactory, and the results such as to warrant tbe deepening of the shaft and the erection of an up-to-date battery, which is to include plant for concentration and cyaniding. Boring is also in progress at other properties at Waihi, but it is probable that a considerable depth will (comparatively speaking on a New Zealand basis) have to be obtained before the reefs are cut. Boring is also going; on at Waitekauri and Thames, and 1 there is a proposal to bore near Coromandel to prove the continuity at depth of the big body of quartz seen outcropping on the road going up Tokatea Hill. Steady work has been maintained at the Crown and Talisman mines ai> Karangahake, also at Komata lleefsandi Tairua Broken Hills. This latter property has of late been a consistent producer of bullion. Good hopes are entertained of the Golden Belt property, at" Neavesville, where a new low level tunnel is now being driven to intersect the reefs cut at upper levels. A battery is to be erected at the mine early, in the New Year. What about the prospects of the Thames itself? your representative asked. Well, as I have said, boring operations are now being prosecuted, and very promising looking cores were being obtained from the borehole put down on the Kuranui-Caledonian Company's ground, when an \mfortunate accident caused a suspension of operations. I saw the cores obtained from the surface downwards; first, the ordinary and well-known country rock common 1o the district was passed through; then a darker class of rock, which lias been described as forming att "unproductive zone';; and below this the ground appears more nearly related! to the rocks near the surface. I understand that the drill was actually ire quartz at a depth of about 1040 ft when the accident happened, and this will, no doubt, encourage those interested to put 1 down other bores. Boring is al*o being undertaken by the Victorian Goldmining Company "on the foreshore. Really, effective prospecting work is- being done, says Mr. Hayes, by the continuation of the Moanata'iari tunnel in the direction; of the New Alburnia claim, and this willcommand a very considerable tonnage of any reefs which may be cut, without boring to incur the expense of windings or pumping. And what as to other, parts of tlie field? Coromandel is doing; rather better than it was. There are potentialities as regards the reefs _ at Tapu. and I understand that operations at Waiorongomai have been successful enough to warrant proposals for development on an extended scale. Generally, speaking, there is a tendency to prospect; more systematically, and to proceed oa much safer and more steady lines than! was the case a few years ago.