DEEP MINING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 103, 2 May 1936, Page 10

DEEP MINING.

BENDIGO FIELD ACTIVITY. MOST MODERN" EQUIPMENT. With £1,000,000 to spend on the development of its claims, an English company had in the past two years greatly revived gold mining in the Bendigo region, stated Mr. Arthur L. Bolton, a Bcndigo business man, who passed through Auckland by the Mariposa to-day on his way to the Rotary International Convention in America. "For the first time the Bendigo reefs arc being mined as they should be —as low grade ore, with occasional rich patches," he stated. "Fortunately Bendigo has not been dependent entirely on its gold mines, for it serves a rich agricultural area. 400 miles square, but the revival of gold mining has brought a great deal of new-moncy into the town, as is shown by the number of new buildings that are going up and the extensive renovations of old ones, and it has increased the population of 30,000 by 2000.

"Until the past few years gold mining and agriculture helped each other. When there was a drought we still liacl an income from the mines, but with the slump of a few years ago both industries fell off," said Mr. Bolton. "The arrival two years ago of £1,000,000 of English capital to develop the mines came at an opportune moment, though it produced, among other things, the usual crop of 'wildcats.' While the price of gold was low, the winning of ore from shafts over 2000 feet deep, as they are there, was not a- paying proposition, but the present company has installed tho most -modern equipment, including powerful pumps, driven throughout with electricity, and are just now beginning to reap some rewards for their enterprise."