MINING INTELLIGENCE.

Evening Star, Volume III, Issue 799, 27 November 1865, Page 2

MINING INTELLIGENCE .

Lake Wakatip promises to be distinguished by the discovery of copper in the district. The Mail of the 22nd instant reports, that :—“ Messrs Small and party, Twelve Mile, Lake, have discovered a copper lode a short distance from the Lake, while out prospecting, we believe, for' a quartz reef. They brought in, on Saturday, some quartz specimens containing metallic copper ; but, singularly, they seem to have retained the yellow ore specimens, the presence of which valuable indication the present samples bear distinct evidence. The lode is some eight or nine feet wide, and the ore is reported to be abundant, An examination is to be made into the character of the lode—Small and party being unaware, until they reached Queenstown, that it was copper. We shall, therefore, with old further particulars till more definite information is at hand. But the district can safely be congratulated upon possessing another copper lode in a locality easy of access, and possessing abundance of timber, lime, clay, &c.” The Tuapeka Recorder says ;—We are happy to be able to state that at the Waipori Copper Mines Copper-ore of a superior quality has been struck in a shaft at a depth of about 12 feet below the bed of the creek. The ore is of the class described by mineralogists as Copper Pyrites. It is of a very dense solid nature ; a pale brass colour ; pieces and samples of about 20 lbs. weight were exhibited, at Waipori on their way to Dunedin. The lode in the said shaft is represented as being four feet in thickness ; of the same quality which was estimated to yield a per-centage of at least 15 per cent, of metal. This discovery being a considerable distance from the outcrop of the ore proves the lode to be Continuous. Several tons of ore are now lying on the surface, which has been raised from the mine, and the great thickness of the lode will enable the Company to raise a large quantity by the continuation of the present workings. An equally valuable discovery has been made by the same parties in the vicinity of the Waitahuna faces, (we allude to cinnabar), of which several pounds of the mineral of the purest quality have lately been sent to Dunedin. It is found in large grains in the gullies, draining-the Waitahuna facings. Although this mineral has been found widely spread over the diggings from the Dunstan down here, it has in no other locality been discovered in such quantity, or in so large pieces, and we confidently expect that a payable vein will shortly be discovered by these enterprising parties, who, we understand, have spent a considerable amount of money in tracing this mineral as it were to its source. .

[Cinnabar is the native red sulphuret of Mercury. In the arts it is called Vermillion]