LATEST THAMES NEW.

New Zealand Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1900, 17 February 1870, Page 5

LATEST THAMES NEW.

', 1 - , (SBOll OTJB OWN cpeBESPOKDEJIX.) BRITISH GOLD MINING COM--v- ' ■ PaJSY "(UAPK CttHEK). .

' * " "* ; .Wednesday, 5 p.m. ; t;. a ,, s P aall crushing of five tons aUhe Hauraki battery, and it <• yielded 18dwts.-of.retorfced gold to the ■ • ion. ■■■ = ' ■

|b* GOLDEN i GA.TE. A trial crashing for-this company has slsotabeaplace at this battery, and it 'tlirefr-quarters of an ounce to the ' ! tori. ; are about ;to have : fifty i 'totis more crashed "when 'the stuff noif goiag, thrpagh the mill is out of ' _' The Albaihiia'a'te, at'present having ten. •V tons and-tlie plates are looking very well.. ■; 5

JDNCriON.

Last.- night, it.- ,was decided by the'' manager, that' the retorting for this corn--5 paiiy^should ' not take place until the blanketings had gone through theberdan. V will delay ttte iasaO of the returns until .tomorrow, 'or Friday. •

' ' 'HANP' r^TIAN"D \TAIRT). ' •c -, 'fkQ .machine in .connection with., i" t this started.a few days ago,employed upon a' lot stuffi which has, been in the house for I months. . The. amalgam is showing up tolerably-well on the plates. The manager ■ has several men employed upon a, leader; lcn'own as- the' " hatter," and, to ' twenty tons is now ready to put through,• - ,J when the'machine has -finished what it' is -j uott engaged upon. Tn a few weeks.; the namber of at present employed will' . suScierit to take out stone to keep the • ' inilt gomg and Say. t !

t , SONS .OP ,F'iEKDOSI. • ■ "i; | ; • The shaft of this'.miua is down 85 feet,,l ' and withinlO feet of the bottom, a large chamban/ihis been excavated; and in-! carrying this forward 15 feet,- the reet' ! i.was-cut : 4 -feet i thick, and found to be ■ ' ' -running north and south; ''It was decided 7t& followit with amain drive/ which is in' "'"•"great care beiagtakeninsecdringit well ' with' timber;' 'At the junction of the ~1, 'drives iV the'chamber "wiiize is being f " ituukfiroTeefc by six and four by sis, and, v <juartz is'/taken .out and> hauled up ! as spe&dily as. possible., and stacked ,on a. platforra of the .GoTerttcuent wire:' tramway, which is only: teet distant from the. mouth of, the : Water flows very freely into: the; " shaffc AC >1 point ! a 4 'few-feet below t surface," and this could very-- easily have been optfafccd by puddling, but instead of 1 that" the.? have si in ply battened it ri the ugual*»t.yle,and the consequence is that "oaife man is constantly kept at the bucket. ■ ?£he whole of the low workings are dry, V" voting to being ten feet above the bottom.; . practical - manager < ha» been on the "- - mine since the> commencement, but to* mono# the. shareholders meet to appoint one, and it i 8 - hoped that for the sake of i • a few pounds a year -tne mine will no' - be' cramped, but receive the benefit of ■ experience which'one of ita high position '<• m BntJtled to. I

FLYING CLOUD

' In sinking the winze at the end of the' drive, several ?ood specimens were got yesterday, and ifc is estimated that in one small lot alone it contains gold to the lvalue of £16. The drive is in above 15'1 feet, and here a T was commenced, which had gone thirty feet when the reef was cat about eight feet in thickness running N.fi. end S.W.; stone of good white and bine eoloreasy to take oat. From this part a crashing was mode, and yielded, over.half-an' ounce "to the ton, but that is not payable under present circumstances If the Company had machinery of their own, no question could be raised as to its. paying. . the reef running through the entire length of tiie ground. At the other end of the T a large chamber has been made, and a large winze is sinking to follow the dip of the leader, which appears very rich here. Scarcely a day passes but good stone is got out, and gold distinctly visible.

WISEVI GULLY". Bbbkeley Castle.—Since the change in the management of this mine, the winze which was being sunk on the reef in the present main tunnel has been stopped, and they are now stoping out towards the surface, to be in readiness for crushing, directly the sleigh road is completed* for which a contract was given oat some time ago. The stuff' now being "got,- is fully erpected, when crushed, to e<jual any previous one, as the gold is visible'm many places of the reel, and a box of specimens is in hand, which are being augmented daily. Golden Fleece. — Since Christmas the shareholders in this claim have com menced to work their ground in a systematic manner, by making a main tunnel '"OU the level with the creek J and this they have got in 148 feet, which: speaks very ■■well of the way in which they have stuck to it. Hp to 100 feet it was very fair working, but the 48 feet is a harcl belt of rock, which has to be blasted. A s soon as this belt is gone through it is intended to excavate for a large chamber, preparatory to making a I drive to cut the Pukeliinau leader, which is erpected to bo Teached in the east side, at a distance of about thirty feet. In one of the old surface workings good specimens were got from this leader, and yesterday several more were picked out from near the game place.

[Peom this " Thames Aj>vbetisbe."] THE TOOKEY'9 COMPANY. We aro glad to see that the line reef opened some time ago in Tookey'e claim, and which lias sinee been so successfully worked in the Belfast, gives promise of a continuance of good prospects. Yesterday a lot of very fin j speeixuna were "brought' and tliei 6 is little doubt from present appearances that it will

prove a fine rich body of stone. The erection of the poppet head' aud engine is being pushed forward with as much briskness' as possible, bi»t the contractors omplain that they arc greatly retarded by the difficulty of obtaining suitable timber. Tlrais a complaint w>ieh certainly ough uot to exist in a country where such a plentiful supply of tho best timber for such purposes' be available from the g -nero is mauner in 'which nature has itself supplied it. " [ ' r '

THE TRAMWAY BATTERY. The Tramway Battery was started _to work yesterday morning on a crashing for the Goldfinch claim. Only a portion of the battery is yet in working order, but the rest is nearly so, and the whole nvill doubtless b • at work in the course of a week at tho furthest. Along with increasing the force of this machine to 12 stampers considerable alterations have been made with regard to the tables and blanket streaks, and when completed it will bo a very efficient crushing machine.

THE ALBCTRNIA. The Alburnia lias of lat-- beon crushing at Weston's bittery with indifferent results, aud yesterday they commenced sending a parcel of 10 tons as a trial of the same stuff to the Hauraki machine.

THE SHOOTING- STAIi. A crashing for ihe Scooting Star iws oommeuced yesterday at Goodali's battery, where it at present occupies six stampers. Tlio result'of'the crushing at tlio Thames battery isn>t yer, to hand, no retorting having jet taken place.

THE NEW LONDON. A trial crushing for the New London claim, Tiiraru, is now going on at Goodall's battery, ■where- it ocoupics five liqad. of. stampers. The s;uff does not look Very promising. THE TARARU BATTERY GOLD SIININGCOMPAIfy. We observe- that -mining operations are about being commenced in this company's ground, and we belieee with good prospects of success. The company's ground lie 3 between' til? Hand-of Friendship and .the City of Dunedin, right in the strike of the Black reef, wliic.i" will doubtless be opened in this ground. ; ! THE ODO BELLOWS. Very little has ever been heard of the Odd Pellotvs' claim. although it is situated on one of the best known parts of the goldfield—on the Euranui Hill, betwoen the. Kuranui Company's ground and the All Cations. A crushing of stoue from this claim was commenced vesterday at the six-stamper battery of the Kuranui 'machine. It looks to be of d promising quality, and : we'shall be glad to learn that it turns well. THE YOUNG AMERICAN. ' At present the Young American stuff occupies five liea.l of stampers at. Goodali's macnine, and the stone' is turning out far better than was expei-ted. ' It wilco'ntinue to employ this numb r of stampers until ' the mine is opened up, when it will employ a full battery of ten stampers. We -are 'glad" to learn that the* fine reef of the Young American continues to improve in size and richness downwards, and specimens are brought to grass "daily. , , ':, i THE'GOLDEN GROWN. Within the last few-days a veiy large quantity of specimens have been turned out of the fine reef of the Golden' Crown, which, if cf ushed t>-i3 week, will make the return, a . very heavy one. The contract' drive from the main shaft is' being pushed' on witli'as much' briskness as possible' considering tne hard nature! of. ; the rock; by the contractor. The chamberishine feet' Widei--and is a very fine piece of wbrk^ ! while the tunnel itself is a large aridspaHOus'one, 'beihir 'fully :£ feet in tlio. -clear., -sEtem ;lhi «opening, up ttiie khaft the stuff has been : very hard?'the drive going througha bar of stone technically known as bastamqaartz', I 'but there appears to be indications of a ch'ange~for the better in the face at present, 'and'there is a greatly increased flow of water. Several times, however, these indications of a 'change have been met with, but disappeared, and it is to be hoped that the present ones, will be the precursors of a favourable change. It is. calcula'ed that a distance of 80 feet from the shaft w 11 open the junction of the good lender with the bastard quartz, and if this calculat on holds good the level may then be held virtually opened. The contractors who had the job of taking out the quartz, to which we previously referred, have relinquished the work, bu the same contract has since been taken up by another party. The company's battery, since the alterations and refitting have been completed, is working in a most satisfactory manner.

THE WED, WHITE, AND BLUE.

A crushing of stone from the Bed, White, and Blue claim, next the West Coast and Newmarket, is now going on at the Victoria There are several fine reefs in this claim, besides a small leader, from which several rich croshings have been already obtained.

fPaoM Yesterday's " TlMB3."] PIONEER BATTERY AND SUCCESS COMPANY. The stirring bygone times that we have oft and again reported upon in connection with the well known Pioneer battery, with which constant work was once the rule, are likely to again become th« order of the day at the head of the Moanatairi creek, where the enterprise of the spirited proprietor, Captain Masspy, induced him to erect the Pioneer machine during, we may remark, the dark ages of the Thame? goldfield, when bush abounded and roads did not. The Pioneer Battery is likely to be kept fully employed, a contract for crushing tne Success Company's quartz having been entered into. The stone is fast coming to grass, nearly 100 tons being in paddock, whilst the contractors who arc breaking down the reef above the largo tunnel, commenced stopping yesterday. The Point in View leader, in another part of the claim, is being worked by weekly wages men, and yields a great (leal of stone. Crushing operations were to commence yesterday, and if we may judge by the ea«y smooth movements of the batteries when they were tried on Monday, will proceed without, unnecoisarvstoppnges. the machine Has an abundant and unfailing supply of water no mean desideratum.

UPPER MOW LTAIRI AND PluVO-A. Mining matters on tho whole wear a healthy aspect at ' Upper Moanatairi, and when the Bcndigo Independent, Clyde, Ballarat Star, and Edinburgh Cnsfcle claima are in work again, and the two crushing machines, namely, tho Pioneer and Star of the South, are in activity, there will be few busier plnees on this field. The Star of the Pouth Company are_ making great preparations to work their claim in a systematic manner. A first-rate main tunnel is being driven into the ranee at the back of the machine houße, and will intersect every leader that parses through the claim afc that or a higher level. We regret t> hear that the Okarita Company liave ceased work for the present, on the usual pl>a of no payable stone; that such is contained in the claim wc feel fully convinced, but it will have to be looked for at a deeper level than any yet opened by the company.

THF SHAMROCK COMPANY. The finding of the underlie of the rich old vein in the main shaft of the above company at the comparatively shallow depth of 147 feet, may be considered as an auspicious event, inasmuch that it is likely to exercise a beneficial influence upon mining n Central Wniotahi, where, at present, there are only some four or five claims in work, and the place is, in consequence, the dullest of the dull. We

ara truly sorry to see such valuable ground as that which the Ballaiut and Rising Sun and the Bachelor's Companies hold, lying idle. There is no - lack of inducement to keep both in full work, for both contain golden reefs that only need development to pay well.

Goo lall's battery is fuily employed, having six stampers on Poverty and Charleston stuff, six head on Star of the South, and five head on Young American. The other fire head are on a parcel from a claim in Tararu. Tho Poverty and Charleston, and Young American, have each been on a week, but no cleaning up has taken place. The Tramway re-commenced crushing, yesterday, on a parcel of stone from tho Goldfinch, Moanatairi. Six head were started, and the other six aro ready for work with the exception of some t/ifling work to the tables. Tho Tramwny now forms a compact little battery, the stampers are about tho heaviest at work on the field. Tho Hauraki has five head of stampers- at work on stone from the Alburnia. The" stone crushed from the big reef in tho Golden Gate vielded 18 dwts. of gold, which is a good payable yield from such a large body of stone. At Souter'', a trial ton from the Gladstone (next the Golden Age) has beon put through tho single stamper, bat the silver was not re* torted last night. Underground work is suspended for the present in tho Otago claim, pending the erection of a whim, for which tenders are called.