CHAMPION COPPER MINING COMPANY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XX, Issue 154, 2 July 1885, Page 2

CHAMPION COPPER MINING COMPANY.

The following report has been received from the Manager : — | Road Work. — The level tramway to the smelting works has been continued, the road, to be made workable for heavy training, has been gone over again and the acute angles as far as practicable removed. Two men in four days will complete the cutting of the first cliff, the second cliff will take six men working in three faces a fortnight to finish. This will complete the road to the point marked C on the plan and over the heaviest of the cliff and rock work. The remainder to the point marked E, United side, may be done at 24s per chain with the exception of 25 chains which will cost about £2 per chain. The fords had better be done by day labor on completion of the other portions of road as the rails being laid to t\e fords will facilitate tba getting- the timber into position and any filling' in that may be required or decided upon, aud avoid curves. On tho south side of the creek and from the mouth of. the Champion tunnel to below the hut a road has been cat making 1 the mine accessible to horse traffic in all weathers. Housework. — The old forge has been converted into a residence or office ou the mine, the present camp being too far off work. Estimate of ore stuff at grass. — This I compute at 500 tons on the Champion side, and 200 tons on the United side. Both places are ready for stoping. The United could start stoping from over the No. 2 tunnel, taking the lode clean out to the surface, and filling up with mullock or debris. The question of sinking a winze or working from the lower tunnel to be guided by results er developement found in stoping. From ita first formation inside the sets of timber in mouth of tunnel to the erosscut where the lode was supposed to bs lost, this has not been the case, evidence of this being afforded in the fact that the two pieces of yellow ore now on the road down for the Wellington Exhibition were taken from the mouth of the crosscut, but under the level, showing plainly the lode, as elsewhere, dips underfoot going south. This is the more apparent as the lode, though showing on the surface on the upper working, is not met with in No. 2 until some 30 feet is driven, the mouth of the tunnel being under the lode, and the end beyond the crosscut being over it. My dialling brings this lode in a direct line with a lode showing on the north side of the United Creek, and of which the cap (quartz) has been tried for gold, I have been informed ; and further that the course instead of bf-ing 35° to 45° Wes' of South is nearly North and South . This would throw it outside the mouths of Loth the lower tunnels, or to the west of tho tunnels which have been driven easterly with the opinion that che lode held the usual course southwest or thereabouts. S oping on the Champion. — This ean ouly bo proceeded with when a place oat of doors has been levelled for storage, or, better still, & Urge hopper or plant be out at the smelting aits for its recaption wit.li the exception of what is over No. 2 Champion tunnel, which could bo run down the pasa leading to No. 1 or m»in tunnel. This is, however, of limited capacity. Doctor's. — This can be stoped from the bottom of what is called the Doctor's Top Winze, both north and south. This would be on the best course of native copper. Stoping could also be done from the Doctor's top level to the outcrop. Underneath the Ghampion main tunnel, Bay at a depth of 40 feet, the Champion lode could be stoped and pulled up by whin or whip, and by those means a large quantity of ore could be raised — probably 200 tons per week. Stoping from shaft levels. — Preparations for this could be proceeded with whilst the other stoping was being oarried on. This would require the raising of the top of the shaft some eight or nine feet to bringit on a level with the tramway The erection of poppet legs, say :?Oft., to admit of a hopper where trucks for smelting works could, be filled from, and also the removal of the whin to a corresponding higher position. In the foregoing I only mean to state how I proposed keeping smelting going and no other object. "United" or North End. — The Eastern cross-cut has been driven 26 feet, total 221 feet. This work I have stopped for the present. Outcrop. — This make of ore has been followed down 5 feet, and I have instructed two men to prepare timber with the view of following an underlie if deemed desirable. Boad Work. — The tramway to the Cliam^ pion has been started from the smelting site and completed some 19 chains to the point marked E on the plan. I am, &c, T. Gemmei<li McLean.