MINING NEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 11892, 21 May 1903, Page 6

MINING NEWS.

The Rise and Shine dredge-master, in his report for last week, states that the dredge worked ahead 12ft. The width of the cut was ahout sixty yards, while the depth varied from 20ft to 50ft, the bottom being very uneven in some places. The east side of the cut was very patchy. The bottom was hard, but on Saturday it was getting softer. The dredge will be occupied for about two weeks in squaring the block ahead of the old cut, after which she will again drop into the face. The machinery was running well, especially the elevator on the rollers. The dredge-master of the Grand Junction No. 2 telegraphed yesterday that he had recovered the lost buckets. He hopes to get them coupled up. and begin dredging before the end of the week. The Roxburgh Jubilee last week was on deep but poor ground. A couple of days' stoppage will shortly be necessary to allow of riveting the screen. The "Sailor's Bend dredge began work on Monday morning, but two and a-half hours after starting the rope drive broke.. The rope looked quite good, but it was perished inside, and could not be spliced. Reporting on the 19th inst. (Tuesday), the dredge-master stated that they bad only had two. shifts' dredging. They got bottom on shallow ground inside, but carrying no ,gold. They had not bottomed in deeper ground, and did not expect to wash up this week. The Lafranchi's Freehold dredge has for the past few weeks been on poor ground, but.the dredge-master now reports indications . of an early improvement. The dredging time has been somewhat broken, while the buckets were being relipped. Dredge-masters' reports for week ended 16th inst.:—' Electric No. 2.—The return of 120oz ldwt was for 58 hours' dredging. The gold was, of the same class as they had been getting lately—coarse, bright gold mixed with a small percentage of fine gold They had pulled ahead Bft since the Friday morning of the previous week. The sleeve of the bottom tumbler broke bemSH" • cheeks at 1 P- m ' Tuesday (12th inst.), necessitating an immediate stoppage, since which they had been overhauling the buckets, pending the arrival of a new sleeve and shaft from Dunedin (the secretary informs us that these have been delayed in transit). They have now got the bucket belt into.fairly good order Sandy Point—The wash continued about tne same, the average depth being 24ft and the width of the face U, chains. The machinery was working well. THE SHARU MARKET. DUNEDIN EXCHANGE. • i r\ . mo n r^in g' B sales:—Davis's Bend &W' 2/6 ; P. 2/7* p, m P; Hartley and Riley, 62/6 Quotations: Alexandra Lead—Buy 12/6, sel 13/3. New Alpine Cot.sols—Bnv 16/6, sel 18/ New Bendigo—Buy 30/; sel 31/6. Davis's Bend.—Contrib., buy 2/6 p, sel 2/9 p; pds., se M5/. ' '■ P ' Electric—-Buy 39/6, sel 41/. Endeavor—Buy 7/', sel 8/. First Chance—Buy 21/, sel 21/9. Fourteen-mile Beach (ord.)--Buy 1/9 Golden River—Buy 2/, sel 2/6 Golden Run—Sel 19/9.: Golden United—Buy 7/6, sel 8/6. Grand Junction—Sel 10/6. New,Halfway.House— Buy 4/, sel 5/ Hartley and Riley—Buy 62/6 sel 63/6: Inchdale—Sel 6/3. Junction Electric—Buy 13/6, sel 14/ Lady Roxburgh (pds)—Sel 6/. Majestic—Sel 13/. • Marraherikia— Bny 31/. . Mokoia—Ord., sel 22/; pref:, buy 23/ No Town. Creek—Sel 25/. . Perseverance—Buy 32/, sel 35/. Sailor's Bend—Buy 29/6, sel 31/. . Sandy Point—Buy 6/6 p, sel 7/9 p. Unity--Buy 10/. - STOCK EXCHANGE NOTES. The river has fallen to the 4ft sin mark. 'Business continues rather on the- quiet side for this time of year, and this morn: ing only two .stocks were dealt in. .One of these—Davis's Bend—displays plenty of buoyancy, and the contributing shares were fairly well dealt in, and "displayed a hardening tendency. Hartley and Riley's showed a

very slight decline on the last recorded transaction. There was very strong demand for Manuherikias. but though buyers advanced beyond yesterday's value they did not succeed in getting a.holder to declare. Buyers also advanced their offers for New Bendgo stock without hplders conceding anything. Sailor's Bends, however, appear if anything a little easier than yesterday, and the same with New Alpine Consols. Perseverance stock is now on .the marked at 35/. The majority of other stocks, especially West Coast, are in comparative neglect. Investment stock quotations:—National Insurance—sel 22/; Coal and Oil—buy 3/6; Perpetual -Trustees—buy 15/; Trustees, Executors—buy 40/6; DonaghVs buy £l3 4/, Bel £l3 5/. SHOTOVER QUARTZ MINING COMPANY. The tenth half-yearly meeting of the above was heH last night, and was attended by about a dozen shareholders. Mr H. E. Wilson, who presided in the unavoidable absence' of Dr Wm. Brown, read the half-yearly report, which stated that the crushing plant was completed in February last, and was running without a hitch. Up to the end of March 225 tons of stone had been crushed for 78oz of gold; fifteen tons erf blanketings from the old mill' had also been cyanided, and yielded lOoz l3dwt of gold. ■ The balancesheet at Apiil 15 showed bullion valued av £341 lis 3d'to have been obtained, while among the working expenses wages totalled £617 lis lOd, and stores £74 9s. There was £705 Is 4d owing to sundry creditors, and the bank overdraft was £177 9s 2d, while there was £155 19s 6d to the credit of the company's accounts in the bank at Queenstown, and £32 10s was owed the company by sundry debtors. The Chairman, in moving the adoption of the report and balance-sheet, said that since the battery had been going they had hopes of bettering their position, but on rising on the stone it had pinched out, and the manager had been instructed to cross-cut as .far as possible. This work was hampered by want of funds, and in the meantime they were anxious to crush as much stone os possible, as' that now being broken out was yielding better results than before. Mr R. Lee said that be had paid a visit to the mine a few weeks ago, but he was not disheartened because the stone seemed to have pinched out,-as it was prohabiy a break or fault in the lode, for all the stopes had "nipped out" in the same line. He agreed that a cross-cut should be made, but through w<int of funds they were unable to work to the best advantage. He was conviheed that the two reefs were converging, and that they had never touched the hanging wall of the reef they were at present on, as its formation was very large, and there was, he thought, a "horse" in the middle of it, the eastern side of whidi they hod touched. They were now in far enough to get any amount of stone if they could only afford to prospect for it, and ail the stone carried gold—so far they had struck no barren stone at' all. No crosscutting worth speaking of had been done, and if they jcould do some it would settle tbe "everlasting uispute as to where the hanging wall was. He would suggest that during the winter, when crushing had to be tfl'scontinued, they should let a small contract for a cross-cut.

Mr D. B. Waters (the consulting engito the company) said thev had three blocks of stone, at 780 ft, I.looft, and 1,300 ft. The first two of these were worked out going up, the stone giving out, and the other was still being worked. The stone was good enough, and would pay them if they could get it out a bit faster; but the break coming in the stone had prevented that. His opinion was that they should prospect over all these blocks of stone. He started a winze when he was. at the 7Soft level, but had to give it up because the men were wanted to get out stone. There was a leader in that winze, going off almost at right angles to the lode, and it carried fair gold. They had never had the hanging wall of the lode for tha last 700 ft or 800 ft, but had had it up to 400 ft or 500 ft. He had not known this until he began to cross-cut at 780 ft, when they drove 16ft without striking the hang ing wall. He thought they should prospect out to the hanging wall, and keep the win/e going until they struck the. foot vail. As to the quality of the stone, where they were now there was some very good stone mixed with some poorer stone. The first crushing averaged 12dwt to the ton. The formation was very big, and rising up on it it became flatter and flatter, lowing that they were getting near to th-foot-wall side. In reply to questions Mr Waters stated that he "did not agree that the gold obtained from the western workings- was from the other reef. The' gold was got from the western lode after its' junction with ' the- eastern lode, and he thought they were now very near the junction, .judging from the size'and softness rf the formation. There was no doubt that they should put in a cross-cut, and during the winter a couple of men should be put on at this, .as there would be no difficulty in getting the air into the' workings for 800 ft. *

Mr H. Adam seconded 'the adoption c'f the report, which was carried after some 'urther discussion.

It was decided to recommend the directors to issue a circular to shareholders ask-, ing them to take up more of the preference shares which were still unapplied for. Dr Brown and Mr W. Henderson were re-elected directors, and Messrs W. Brown and Co. were reappointed auditors.