MINING.

Evening Star, Issue 14184, 8 October 1909, Page 6

MINING.

River height this morning, 6ft lin; weather fine.

The Good Chance. dredge-master • will not wash, up until to-morrow afternoon, and the return will not be known until Tuesday. The Sandy Point dredge-master put in 132 hours’ work for the week ended on Saturday last. The cut wae four chains wide, with an average depth' of 32ft, the distance worked ahead being 18ft. The bottom is now opened out four chains wide. Prospects continue about the same, with a good, soft bottom right across the cut.

The Manuherikia dredge is working into the beach at the bottom of the claim. '

There is an improvement in the prospects of the Alexandra Eureka dredge ( and an increased return may be expected. The Ngapara is reported to be on a rich run of wash, and the, returns are said to be very satisfactory. The Cardrona Company’s dredge commenced operations last Tuesday. The machine is driven by water power, and is under the mastership of Mr Cl Curno. Messrs Stewart and party, at Patearoa, are reported to have declared a dividend recently amounting to £7O per man as a result of six weeks’ sluicing. During the month of September the Talisman Consolidated mine crushed and treated 3,865 tone of ore, for a yield of bullion valued at £18,292 13s 2d. The master of the Electric No. 2 dredge, writing on the 4th inst., stated that work was carried on for 105 hours last week, and during that time the dredge worked Bft ahead. The width of the cut was about 160 ft, and the greatest depth about 43ft. The gold was a coarse sample, similar to what had been obtained previously, The ground was extremely rough and tight, and this fact accounted for the small amount of ground worked. Under ordinary. conditions the dredge could usually work ahead from 20ft to 24ft per week. On Thursday morning a stoppage was made for repairs, as the sleeve of the bottom tumbler was found to have worked loose. A new section of screen was put in at the same time, and the master expected to resume dredging on Wednesday night or yesterday. There was a sharp rise in the river on Friday morning, but it quickly subsided again. In consequence of the stoppage and the rise in the river the paddock would no doubt be partly filled with silt, so there will not be a wash-up this week. The crusade against gold-stealing in mines is now being carried on in the Rand. There Mr George Albu, one of the mining magnates of South Africa, recently declared that every attempt made by the companies to stop the pilfering of gold had proved to be futile. He therefore wants the Government to allow the mines to adopt such regulations for the control of the mine reduction works as shall render thieving almost impossible. Mr Albn’s idea is to introduce the same precautions as are observed in the branches of the Royal Mint. He purposes to keep the amalgamators and: the millwrights entirely apart, a separate plate and extractorbonse being erected. Mr Albu says that he is determined to place temptation as much as possible outside the reach of the workmen under his control. If he finds obstacles to his intentions in that direction, then those obstacles must disappear. Our Tuapeka correspondent informs us that Messrs Martin and party, at work above M'Millan s Flat, have teen doing very well in their sluicing claim of late. They are at present following up a run of gold, freely impregnated with quartz, which apparently has its source in Gray’s Gully, where some rich alluvial was worked in the early days, and where a quartz reef is known to exist, A few years ago Mr John Hogg, jun., spent several months prospecting in Gray’s Gully in the hope of striking payable . stone. Unfortunately success did not attend his operations, and as his finances could no longer tear the strain, he was obliged to abandon the undertaking. Some of the old-time miners ding to the belief that a highly payable reef will be struck at no distant in the neighborhood of Gray’s Gully, which is one of the tributaries of the Tuapeka Stream. It is (writes our correspondent) just about forty years since the Canton reef at Mitchell’s Flat, Waipori, was first opened up by a party of Chinese miners. They spent over £2,500 in sinking a shaft, and ceased operations about the year 1870. The “ Canton ” has been “ shepherded ” for many a year, and at one time the New Zealand Minerals Company, who took in hand the development of the O.P.Q. reef about ten yeare ago, held an option over it. If. the Minerals Company had been successful, it was their intention to have driven the battery and undertaken* the haulage of the mine with electrical energy developed at Waipori Falls, the company also having an option over the site now in possession of the Dunedin City Council.

RETURN. Koputai : 28oz 2dwt, 106 hours. THE SHARE MARKET. —Dunedin.— A fair amount of business was put through on ’Change up to noon to-day, New Zealand Crowns changing hands at 6s 7d and Golden Beds at 10s 3d at the first call, and Talismans at Oae 6d at mid-dav. Sales were reported in New Zealand Crowns at 6s 9d and May Queens at 4s Id. No forward delivery business took place. Following are the quotations to midday : Dredging Alexandra Eureka—Sel 1/9. Golden Bed-Buy 10/, sel 11/; sal«lQ/3. Hartley and Riley—Buv 15/, sel 20/ Pactolus—Buy 5/. Sluicing. Ross Goldfields—Sel 11/3. Quartz. The New Alpine—Buy 4/6. New Sylvia—Buy 5/5, sel 5/8. Progress Mines—Sel 14/. Blackwater Mines—Sel 27/3. Kunmui Caledonian—Buy 1/6, sel 1/9 May Queen—Buy 4/10, sel 5/. Old Hauraki—Buy 2/4, sel 2/8. Talisman Consolidated—Buv 52/ sel 52/6; sale 52/6. ’ Tairua Broken Hill—Buv 2/2, sel 2'4 Tairua Golden HilLs-dluy 6/3. Watchman—Boy 2/8, sel 3/. Waihi Consolidated— Buv 6/6, sel 5 >9. Waihi Extended— Buy 4/11, eel 6/I.' Waihi Grand Junction—Buy 50/3, sel 51/ Wawtahi— Buy 5/4, sel 5/6. N.Z. Crown Mines—Buy 6/5, sel 6/7. New Monowai—Buy 2/1, sel 2/6. Tasmanian Copper—Buy 4/3, sel 5/. Maoriland—Buv lid, sel 2 Goldfields— Buy 19/6, sel Investments Union Steam Ship Co.—Sel 34/6. 26^p bßrn Dime and Cement (£l>—Buy Mosgiel Woollen Factoiy—Buy 56/6, sel DO/. N.Z. Portland Cement—Sel 40/6. —Auckland.— Business done at the first call to-day included Dixon’s Consolidated, 10d and lid; May Queen, 4s lid; Monowai, 2s 3d; Saxon, Is 6d; Waiotahi, 5e sd; Wai--3a 8d; Haoraki, 2s 7d; Pride of iokstea, Is and Is Id ; Royal Oak, contributing, 2s lid; Crown, 6s 4d; Maoriqj to Is; Talisman, 53s and 52a ad; Mountain King, l s 3d. 'THE KEYSTONE BORER. „ At last week’s meeting of the Vincent County Council, eays the ‘ Mount Benger Mail, the Chairman /Mr Horn) reported that the Keystone borer had been doing excellent work in his district, and although it had not found gold, it had proved the existence of deep ground at Kawarau. At Bannockburn they had bottomed two holes at 78ft and 148 ft. They had gone through the bottom at the last hole, and were through wash for another 40ft. The cost worked out at 2s 4d per foot. _ He would give full results i , meß ting. With the Government subsidy it was doing very cheap work.— Cr Weaver said this was less than half what the private machine was charging. If this was correct, he thought the Go-

venunent machine would get . a lot of work in Hie district. In future he would not go into any dredging unless it had been tested by boring.—The Chairman said there had' been'some doubt as to whether the machine would bring up gold or not. Ho had put gold down the hole for a trial, and recovered out of 3dwt 4gr all but 12gr. It was very hard gold to save, and Lad been an excellent test. The expenditure came to about £ls a weok.

On the same date (Wednesday, October 6) the Cromwell letter to the ‘ Alexandra Herald’ states :—“After winning golden opinions in its work in the first few holes sunk, the Keystone borer has found trouble. After reaching a depth of 148 ft at Bannockburn, the usual method of lifting the pipes failed, and work is now stopped awaiting the arrival of more powerful jacks, which are necessary in the work of lifting. The syndicate which the machine is no it operating for will suffer considerably by the delay, more especially if it should happen that any of the casing is not recovered. After finishing at Bannockburn the machine will probably proceed to Lowborn." The borer achieved a somewhat remarkable record at the Eamsdeugh Company’s claim on Monday last, when a large stones in width and 9in long, was brought up by the suction pump through 80ft of 6jn casing. The stone is the largest ever brought up intact by the borer, and Mr Stewart regards it as a wonderful feat. When it is considered that only play existed on each ride of the stone it may readily be conjectured that the occurrence is a rather extraordinary one, and having seen the stone we are in a position to testify to the authenticity of the feat.—‘ Alexandra Herald.’