THE GREAT BARRIER MINING COMPANY.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue I, 22 April 1843, Page 2

THE GREAT BARRIER MINING COMPANY.

The manager of the company has kindly promised to furnish us by every opportunity with a report of the operations at the copper mines, in the meantime we give the following information received from a gentleman who has visited the mine, and who is fully competent to judge of such matters : " The mine, or rather series

mines, for they are ascertained to be very numerous and extensive, are unusually, rich and productive; yielding black, grey, green and yellow, or bronze ores, and occasionally blue and red. The workings at present carried on, are upon the very surface of the hills, from 180 to 200 feet above the level of the sea, and being free from water, are worked with great facility. The average produce of the ores shipped, which were only hand dressed, is from 15 to 20 per cent of copper, as found upon trial by a professional smelter of ores, who was sent from Sydney for the special purpose of testing the ores. The number of hands at present employed is about twenty, but a hundred might be advantageously employed, if sufficient capital could be obtained." Since the above was written, Mr. Abercrombie, the principal owner of the copper mine, has snipped for Sydney, by the "Tryphena," twenty tons of copper ore, and about thirty tons of manganese ore, for the purpose of being forwarded to England. It is exacted that in the course of two months, a hundred tons more of the copper ore will be ready for exportation. Mr. Abercrombie not only deserves much credit for the great exertions he has made in thus developing the mineral resources of the colony, but he is peculiarly entitled to the countenance and support of the government. But for his extraordinary enterprise and immense outlay of capital, these valuable treasures might have for years remained, if not hid and unknown in the bowels of the earth ; at all events unavailable, for it cannot be denied that there is not a single other individual connected with this colony, who could at the present time afford the necessary expen e of making even the experiment, which has now happily, and we trust, successfully and beneficial to himself and to our colony, been made by Mr. Abercrombie. It is but justice to Mr. Abercromie to state, that he has not only been in this respect, the first to confer a great benefit upon the colony, but he has been also one of the first to direct attention to the colonization of this part of New Zealand. He has expended more capital upon New Zealand, and has imported more immigrants and useful labourers, than any other connected with this country. Independent of his operations at the copper mines, he has recently imported three cargoes of cattle to the barrier, and another vessel is laid on in Sydney with more cattle.