THE THAMES GOLDFIELD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume VI, Issue 1805, 27 October 1869, Page 5

THE THAMES GOLDFIELD.

OOLDKX CT<o\\'y. Tlie who!-,' amount of melted gold received from the 50 tons crushed for the above claim, at Brown and Campbell's battery, Tararu, was 523 ounces, that. i-. nearly 10; ounces t.o the toil. The cleaning up on Sat urday. of the Company's battery gave li'.lJ ounces. TEIIC LOXli PTUYJi. Some splendid specimens were taken out of the Long Drive on Sa'unlay, which were shown to us b_v tlie courtesy of ilie manager, ifr. -Mttir. From tlie amount of specimens at present on hand it is intended to have a crushing in a few days. Some of the pieces of stone we saw, although several pounds weight, seemed to us to contain more of the precious metal than stone. THE IMPERIAL GROWX. To see driving carried on upon an extended and liberal scale, it is only necessary to visit the Imperial Company's claim, which, under thr management; of Captain iriggins, is being worked in a manner that surpasses anything of the kind we have yet witnessed on this Held. Tiie large shaft,—the nze and shape of which we described in a former issue--has been sunk .i.-arly (>l) leet, -11) feet being through rock. Shortly after the rich leader thai was ft ruck under the alluvial dipped under the shaft. A mullock.v lode that itilcrseclcd the shaft longi udinallv was cut, and has been kept in hand since. It dips perpendicularly, and on account of the prospects and small specimens obtained from it,, is believed to be payable. A few tons of the sLulf have been placed to grass. Work has been followed at a great disadvantage the hist day or two, owing to the presence of what we'believe to he nothing more or less than a quantity of carbonic acid gas at-the bottom of the shaft, and which vitiated the air to an extent that obliged the workmen below to knock oil' for a time. The powerful ventilating apparatus that has been fixed in the shaft made little or no impression upon this unwelcome intrusion, which, no doubt, emanates from the nnillockv vein above-mentioned, It is attended by an almost unbearable stench.

In (lie Beach Claim work is hcin<r curried on vigorously in the low level drive, the .lame iu which the rich leader was found some time ago, an.! from which some magnificent, specimens were taken. A 'L' drive some 20 feet litis been driven on this leader, and a Jar"e quantity of stone is at present to grass. The leader, where at present worked upon, is three feet six inches wide.

liMho Mariners' Reef Gold Mining Company'.- ground, adjoining the last, mentioned claim, a shall is at present sinking to cut, the lender from which stone is being crushed at O-oodall's battery, and which is

promising to give a very handsome return. When the present manager wad appointed there w;>.- a great deal of time lost in getting the ground in proper working order. as niost of the old timber hail to he (aken out, and new put in, unci some oflhe ground which had fallen in had lo be secured before mneh headway could be made. The low level drive is now in 32.i feet up to the boundary of the adjoining claim, the Sailor l'rince, and a 1' drive put ill at ISO feet from the mouth of the tunnel, cut a very nice leader some t.wo feet sn mehe? wide, from which a trial ton, crushed at GootlaU's battery last week, gave a rr.nih ol I,wo ounces five dwts. of gold. This 1 dme was carried on and cut the main reef, the name fount! in the Ueadi claim, from which the stune -was taken at present crushing

at the Prince Alfred battery, and which is looking remarkably well on the plates, there being already 500 ounces of amalgam taken oil' them. The work at, present on hand is sinking a shaft, which will cut: the leader in about 35 or 10 feet, and will t hen allow the reef to bo stoped out for about 70 leot. The manner in which this shaft is being sunk and timbered, together with the spacious chamber beside it. reflects the greatest credit on the manager. It. is intended also to sink a main shaft close by the boundary of I hi* claim, near the line of Campbell street, and so work the reef, which runs the whole length of the claim. There seems little douot but that the returns from this claim will compare favorably with those from some of our creek claims ; for, as soon as the ground is properly in working order, the amount of stone which can be taken out from the large reef, and tho number of leaders in the ground, will pay il it retuns unrlhing like the past results, very remunerative dividends. Tho Flying C'loud elab.i is again crushm"twenty tons of stone at battery. This crushing is not expected to yield such a large return as the last, for a gnnl many specimens have been taken from the stuff. The Golden l»ar Gold Mining Company's ground, situated on the spur between the Karaka and Waiotahi (.'reeks, is at present taking out some very good stone from different leaders in the claim. A trial of four ton 4 ? of quartz from these leader* is being crushed at the Halcyon batiery, and from the appearance on the plates there is every promise of a good result. One of these leaders, a mulloe I, v one, has been tested before, and yielded at. the rate of three ounces of gold per ton. Tiie >harelu»hiers of the Pacific claim, Collarbone, have burrowed into the spur to the length of 25 1 feet, that being thedistauec from the mouth of the tunnel to where a small, but promising, leader .'s in hand. 'I be vein is from three to six inches thick, and has a strike of about •'{•") °, or >ay X.K. and S.W. It dips to 75 ° , y.\Y. 'I he stuff shows gold, and also gives good dish prospects, and its value is estimated a! two ounces to the ton. .Surely the Collar-bone spur will some dav give good returns other than those obtained out of the oft-quoted Atlantic claim. It appears to contain a network of veins and leaders, all of them more or less auriferous ; but., excepting in the claim above mentioned, not- one has given a succession of really paying crushing*. And yet t here is much ground of promise opened and in full work that we are sanguine will ere long operate most beneficially upon the gold escort returns.

As an instance of this, we can mention the i>auk of Xew Zealand claim, which embraces an area of four men's ground, on the crown of the spur, a little higher up than the Pacific, and immediately above the Royal Alfred and True liriton Company. This claim has been worked for nearly two year* by the men who now hold if, and we may remark without once applying for protection in that time, so confident were they of eventually obtaining fair remuneration lor the labor and expense thev had gone to. A tunnel, three hundred feet long, and just the size for comfortable working. has being driven in it, and at two hundred and eighty feet broke into a mullocky lode, that just then bossed out to ten feet thick, but afterwards contracted to three feet, and was followed at that width some three or four fathoms. If is propo>ed to crush the stone already out, and to that end arrangements are being made to pas-* it. through Boucher's machine, which stands on Ivaraka Creek, below the claim.

We vi>ited the Royal Kxchange Company's claim, Central Ivaraka, yesterday, and found ihe.woivmen deep in the mysteries of a stratum of hard trachy dolerite roek that traverses that part of the ground. Consequent, upon tliis obslrue!ion slow progress is making, only seven feet having been gained during the past week. The manager, however, thinks that he is nearly through the Kdt. The tunnel is in •45 feet, and 15 fee? further should touch the Koval Exchange leader.

On the opposite of the .fvaraka Creek the ground is in full work from the Coll-en Bawn Company's claim to the Ifa ;py-go-Lucky, below White's llokinmia machine. Some of the claims were idle a month ago —the Rose of Karaka amongst others — the privilege of pi*oteetion being extended to it. .Since then the work of continuing an adit originally opened to prospect tho ramie ha- heen vigorously prosecuted, and it is expected that the underlay of a vein that ou(-ei\>ps on the hiil-sid-' :iS.»vt'. will be struck in a few yards : art her. Other encouraging prospects were washed out of the muHocky easing of this outcrop. The count rv being drive}) through is the harde-t kind of trachyte* that yields to not bins; but tho foreo of powder. The vein of nice-looking stone that was intersected at thirty feet from the entrance of the main adit in tlae adjoining, Star of Karaka claim, is Mill being followed by n cross-cut. and Miow> a good face fully fifteen incites wide. Whilst certain necessary alterations and repairs to t.iie tramway froiu the Lord Xelson Company's claim are being ctieeted, crushing operations are suspended at White's Hokiauga machine. The batteries which had been employed upon Lord Xelson stone were cleaned up on Saturday night. The return, as near as could be judged by the quantity of amalgam collected, being one aml-a-half ozs. to the ton. —Timrs. P P i: f it I. I white in some haste to inform you that on Friday laM a reef, three feet in width, was struck in the Waitemala claim, The stone is a brownish quartz, and tolerably coarse gold can be seen in many parts. Some very good specimens hare been taken. The reef runs south-west and northeast, ami dips to the westward, so that it is expected that the Gohbm C"own, Alliance, and Prospectors, will get. it at various depths. The reef was struck in a cross drive, about twenty feet from the main drive, which is iu

about 100 feet at the point from which the cross drive goes oH'. On SaJurdav last, the Golden Crown aero** *i splendid reef of seven feet wide, in the middle tunnel, about

120 feel. A parcel of sione has been tested by the manager, and gave a return of between two and a half and three ounces to the ton. Several tine specimens were taken down to Shortluiul this day by the manager. The men are now opening out and preparing for crushing as soon as the machine shall be ready, wfTich, it is expretcd, will be about the middle of this week. Tho ground "about the Little London and Agues claims, where gold was recently struck, is now occupying a good deal of attention, and (lie Mono taken out. of them I >oks most, promising. Quite a small township ha« sprung up about there in the last few day.-. -Tihirs 1 Correspondent.