PICTON AND HAVELOCK GOLD MINING COMPANY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XIV, Issue 1121, 2 April 1879, Page 6

PICTON AND HAVELOCK GOLD MINING COMPANY.

The Directors of the above-mentioned company held a meeting at the Clarendon Hotel, Picton, on the evening of Saturday the 29th March., the principal business being to consider the advisability of sorwarding a peremptory notice to all who had nob paid the second call, and also to receive the report of a sub-committee who had been deputed to visit the mine and lay off the proposed tunnel, Messrs Nicholls and Swanwick were the two gentlemen who had visited the mine on behalf of the directors, and the following report, which they handed in, accompanied by a well-executed plan of the reef and its locality, were unanimously adopted by the meeting : Gentlemen, —According to the resolution passed by your committee, we proceeded on Tuesday, February 28th, to visit the mine, and lay out the work, as instructed, for the contractors. We arrived on the ground early on the following morning, and the whole of the day was spent on the claim. The reef is approached on the eastern side of a range of hills by a gully; the range here being about 700 feet high. The gully is somewhat steep and densely covered with small timber trees and underscrub ; the reef cropping out on the saddle at the head of this gully. There is a very good site for a battery at the foot of the gully, where there is a fine creek, which at this season of the year carries sufficient water to work a powerful turbine wheel. On this side of the range the reef has been laid bare in three separate places, so ype were enabled, by clearing away the scrub to

trace its course, which we found to be from N.E. to S. W. We carefully examined the works formerly done at the mine, both on the Eastern or Criterion Creek, and the Western or Quartz Creek, sides of the range. It was on the eastern side where the original prospectors had excavated a tunnel to the distance of—along the course of the reef. This tunnel proved the presence in the claim of a very large lode of auriferous quartz ; and a company known as the Sutherland Company, was formed to crush the stone. That this company was not a success was mainly owing to the fact that they undertook to work the ground on the western or Quartz Creek side of the range. To any casual observer it is quite evident that a great mistake was made by attempting to work the mine from that side of the hill; the reef on that side being nowhere visible. A very expensive tunnel was excavated in search of the lode, and it appears that it was only just met with when the Company collapsed from want of funds. The lode on the eastern side as it penetrates the hill widens, and carries its course very accurately, dipping out of the perpendicular to the E.E. about one foot in three. From the outcrop ou the saddle down to the prospectors tunnel is 115 feet; the whole of the stone through that distance is known to be gold bearing, and is at once available for the crushing mill. Keeping in view the above facts while laying out the works for the contractors, our object ■was to endeavour to cut the lode in the tunnel immediately under this body of auriferous quartz, and at as great a depth as possible with the shortest length of tunnel. We carefully examined the formation of the ground in the gully, and on clearing away the scrub, etc., it became quite evident that to make sure of cutting the reef at the desired place, the site for the mouth of the tunnel must he as far to the north as the nature of the ground would permit of. Having selected what we considered the most advantageous position, we found that the course of the tunnel would he due E. and W. Having carried with us from Picton a straight-edge, a graduated staff, and a spirit level, we proceeded from the mouth of the old tunnel to level the hill down to the spot we had chosen. It was found that a tunnel 250 feet on the horizontal would give a perpendicular height of 140 feet, making in all 255 feet from the outcrop of the reef in the saddle to the end of the tunnel immediately beneath it. On the completion of the present contract, should the reef at this lower level be found of an equally promising character with the parts already cut in the original prospectors drive, and that v’sible at the outcrop on the saddle, the company will bo fully justified in erecting powerful machinery. They can then safely reckon on having a number of years crushing before them, without the necessity of going to any great outlay, The mine can undoubtedly bo worked at the minimum cost, there being a depth of 700 ft from the cap, which may he worked by tunnels, without the aid of pumping or lifting machinery. On onr return several pieces of stone were taken from tile reef and brought to Picton, and on being crushed showed the presence of gold. We have the honor to be. Gentlemen, Your bumble servants, Samuel Swanwick, To the Committee R. -Nicholes. Picton and Havelock Gold Mining Company,