MINING NEWS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 6, 15 December 1869, Page 5

MINING NEWS.

THE SOUTHLAND GOLDFIELDS. Mr Warden Hagers, writing from Orepuki tinder date 22n;l November, reports as fojlows ; At Orepuki there are about 80 miners, all engaged in ground sluicing. Most of these have been on the ground from two to four years, and it is not likely there will be any decrease in their numbers. Their earnings vary from lbs to £ I per day—and in a few instances, more—from the time of completion of head and tail races. The gold is very fine, and only payable by ground sluicing. There is a large area of payable ground known, and the only limit to' an increase in number is that all the water rua lily available is now taken up A company to bring in water, would be at once formed, and the capital found between Orepuki and Riverton, if the necessary levels and distances were known, so as to give data on which to calculate the cost. At Lake George, O’olac’s Hay, there are about ten minors ground sluicing. At Moa Creek there are ten miners,, part ground sluicing, and part cutting the terraces, prospecting for a reef. Thu ground has paid well, the gold being coarse. At Longwood there are about seventy miners. Of these, there are fifteen on the Company’s ground, a few ground sluicing, and others cutting through the terraces. Two other parties are at similar work on each side of Specimen Gully. In this gully, numerous specimens of quartz, with visible gold, are still being found ; and from the angular form of the stone, showing that it cannot have travelled far, great hopes arc entertained of the parent reef being soon struck. At the prospecting claim, a mile distant from Specimen Gully, the reef has now been struck for the lergthof a qnarter-of-a-mile, at various depths up to 52,'t. Fine gold is foun lin the d&rU of the quart/, an 1 casing by panning off, but none is visible in the stone, no means of properly crushing the stone for trial at present exist here ; hut a Berdan’s Crusher is shortly expected, and in the meantime the parties propose joining to sink a shaft a hundre 1 feet, On the Company’s ground, Messrs Sunuati and Blaeklock have been obtaining coarse, nuggety gold, some pieces being over an ounce in weight, and marked with particle) of quartz. At Stewart’s Island, there are about tea miners. The Bluff Company have applied for further protection for their quartz claim at Ho I Head, to make arrangements for sinking a deep shaft to test the stone at a lo«cr level. '