A VISIT TO THE TAPU MINING DISTRICT.—No. 11.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9025, 11 April 1888, Page 6

A VISIT TO THE TAPU MINING DISTRICT. —No. 11.

[BY OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. J ' TAPU. Leaving the Gentle Annie range about five p.m. I reached Tapu at six, and succeeded in finding lodgings for myself and horse at Mr. Hawke's boarding-house. There I fell in with a Mr. Macfarlane, who has charge of the telephone office, and is an old identity of the settlement. In course of conversation I gleaned the following information re the prospecting operations which are going on up the Tapu CreekPlummer Bros., in No. 1 gully, have succeeded in cutting an 18-incn leader for which they have been prospecting for some time past, and where intersected its quality is of a very promising character. In Kelly's claim, No. 3 gully, driving is being carried on to cut one of the old company leads which yielded rich returns of gold nearer the surface some 15 or 16 years ago. A mile further up the creek, at a place called Golden Point, D. Sheridan is putting in a drive to _ cut the Havilah reef. He has already driven 150 feet, and expects to go ahead a further distance of 40 feet before intersecting the desired object. Goonan and party, in the claim above, are working on a small leader from which a trial crushing of two tons yielded 7ozs gold, worth £3 per ounce. One or two other parties are prospecting in the ranges, but nothing has been heard of them lately. What is likely to have a beneficial effect on the settlement itself is the taking out of a lease for 30 acres immediately at the rear, on the south side of the Tapu Creek, for the treatment of the surface dirt. A Thames syndicate have the matter in hand, and for the purpose of ascertaining the value of the dirt, 25 tons have been taken out of as many different places in the lease, and forwarded to Mr. Brown's tailing plant at Tararu. It is said a yield of 2dwt. per ton will pay handsomely, as there is an unlimited supply of the dirt. A site has been selected near the scene for the erection of a plant, provided the present test yields up to expectation, the process being confined to pans, concentrators, &c., the cost of which will be about £2000. In eluded in the lease are the old Marquis of Hastings, Clyde, Royal Oak, and Tfcpu Mint holdings, and it is thought that in working the surface dirt it is quite possible reefs of a payable nature may be met with. Should the plan of operations succeed, it will be the means of infusing fresh life into the old settlement, and perhaps encourage other people to prospect the hills at the back.

WAIOMO. At eight am. on Thursday I left Tapu for Waiomo, reaching the Paroquet battery at nine. After waiting a short while Mr. J. B. Steedman, who is in charge of the Gem Licensed Holding, put in an appearance, and accompanying him, I was soon at the scene of his operations. This claim is situated on the left-hand range going up the Waiomo Creek, and lies westward of the Paroquet It is distant about threequarters of a mile from the battery, to which it is connected by a line of tramway around the side of the hill. The works now in hand are the driving of two levels, and the sinking of a winze to connect the same. The surface level is in about 120 feet, carrying a reef 18 inches, and showing more or less gold all that distance. The quartz is not of a very taking character, being inclined to be of a white, hungry nature, but it carries patches of

bluish-looking mineral, and wherever this occurs colours of gold are almost invariably seen. It may perhaps be advisable to state that this level was originally commenced by Mr. R. Workman some four years ago, when he held the ground as a private claim. He drove some 40 feet on the reef, and sunk a winze down to it from the surface, obtaining about 120 tons of quartz in doing so. From this quantity he selected 7 tons, which yielded about 70oz of gold. Since then other parties have picked out % little of the quartz thus broken, but the bulk of it is now lying on the surface. The winze now being sunk from the surface level is down a depth of 56 feet, which leaves 14 feet to go Wore communicating with the drive. At present no quartz is being broken, the winze being taken down on the hangingwall. At the low level 150 feet were driven before the reef was intersected. At this point the reef appears to divide into two branches, the righthand portion running to the eastward of north, and the left hand portion a little to the westward. Driving was first commenced on the course of the former, on the hangingwall side, with a view to getting in underneath the winze now coming down from above, but after driving about 60 feet it was j found to be going too much to the right, | consequently the work was stopped for the time. Scarcely any quartz was broken in this drive, the reef only being touched here and there, but in the face the thickness of the reef has been ascertained to be four feet. The left-hand branch was then taken in hand, and has since been found to correspond with the reef the winze is coming down on. This has also been driven on a distance of 60 feet on the hangingwall side, only a small portion of the reef being taken, but its exact size is three feet. A little gold is occasionally seen, but no time is i lost in searching for it, the manager being anxious to push the drive ahead, there still remaining some twenty feet before the winze will be met. The class of quartz coming to hand is similar in every respect to that obtained in the level above, and Mr. Steedman expresses his belief that it will at least prove payable. In order to facilitate the transit of quartz down to the Paroquet battery at a reasonable cost, a tramway has been formed, which works in two sections. To describe its mode of working in the simplest manner, I may state that almost at the mouth of the low-level is a large hopper erected on the face of the hill. At the bottom of this hopper is a line of tramway about 300 feet in length, which leads to & second shoot and hopper, there being a fall of 140 feet. This hopper is connected with the tramway which leads direct to the battery, a distance of nearly half-a-mile, and the gradual fall or incline is such that the trucks will run down of their own accord, breaks being fitted} to each of them to prevent them obtaining too great a speed. Horses will be employed in drawing them back to the hopper. The tramway is now almost in a state of completion, but the shoot leading up from No. 2 hopper to the intermediate section will take some days to complete, although now well in hand. All this work has been carried out in a thorough workmanlike and substantial manner, and reflects great credit on Mr. Steedman, who has had the supervision of the whole arrangement. The cost of sending the quartz down to the battery by this mode of procedure is not expected to exceed half-a-crown per ton. In carrying out this work the company has had to rely entirely on its own resources, but the prospects of the mine would seem to warrant the outlay. The next mine visited was the Golden Drop, on the opposite range to the Gem, but here I found the workings at a standstill, not a soul being visible. However, from the observations I was enabled to make myself I found considerable prospecting work has been done upon the face of the hill, where the reef is exposed to view, but in the drive below it is not yet to hand. The claim adjoining this on the western boundary is the Golden Point. There a drive has been put in a distance of 140 feet through an excellent channel of country, with the view of intersecting the reef, but but it is supposed to be still 60 feet further ahead. A good sledge road is now being made by the Thames County Council leading up to these claims, winch will , facilitate the traffic up and down considerably. A good distance up this track two men were employed shooting away the side of tlie hill to widen the road ; and here they had exposed to view a strong body of quartz of a very promising character, running almost due north and south through the Golden Point Claim. Judging from itsappearance, where exposed, it would, perhaps, be of advantage to the Point people to trace it higher up the hill, and prospect upon it a little. Coming down to the battery, I was just in time to meet Mr. Jas. Wilson, manager of the Paroquet Claim, who invited Mr. Steedman and myself to inspect his workings; So, mounting our horses, we were soon on our way up the road—recently formed" by the ■ Thames County Council, at a cost of nearly £800—which leads to the mine. Since the road was made considerable traffic has gone over it in conveying the quartz down to the : battery, consequently it is now in some places greatly in need of repair—culverts being' needed in several (places • to drain off the water trickling down from the hill above—a work which has already been sanctioned by the

Council. The Paroquet licensed-holding is distant about 1$ miles up the left hand range of the Waiomo Creek, and its area is 13£ acres. It comprises the original Paroquet mine, Waiomo, and Maori Claims, the present company purchasing all the 1 righto of the former proprietors. The low level was driven some 150 feet before the lode was met with, the drive being too much on the hangingwall side, so that from here right out to surface it still remains intact. Where intersected, however, the reef was. about 4 feet thick, and it has since been driven on a distance of 100 feet, its size being sometimes less and at _ other times greater, but on an average it has maintained the width stated. The quartz coming to hand is of a favourable description, carrying a conglomeration of black mineral veins, decomposed silica, blend, &c., in which gold is pretty freely diffused. Between the several ribs of quartz, however, there exists a mullocky substance; but, ab mineral veins interlace it, the whole of the stuff broken out is thrown into the hopper as crushing dirt. The country encasing the reef is not altogether what might be expected to be of a gold-bearing description, but Mr. Wilson informed me this is a feature peculiar to the locality. Three stopes were in hand overhead, and a fourth about to be started. Here the reef is considerably larger, but has the same characteristics as in the level below, and colours of gold are freely seen in breaking down. There are 6) feet of N backs above. In bringing in this level a leader, now known as the hangingwall leader, was intersected, and where first met with, some excellent gold-bearing stone was obtained. Since then this leader, which is a foot in thickness, has been driven upon 37 feet, carrying gold all the way, but as there is now so much traffic in the tunnel from the workings on the main reef, further driving for the present has been suspended. The underlay of this leader, and that of the main reef, being towards each other, the manager carried a winze down on the larger body of quartz a depth of 27 feet with the view of coming upon the junction, as he thought that the two bodies coming together might cause a patch of gold. However, as the junction was not met with, the winze was suspended, and a second one was to be commenced on the leader itself during the afternoon shift of the day of my visit. This is being done to follow the true course of the leader downwards, and also to ensure meeting with the junction, provided the leader keeps its present underlay. At the upper level the reef has been opened up for a length of fully 80 feet, the reef being of similar size and quality as below, but at present operations are at a standstill, to allow the sinking of a winze to open communication between the two levels. This winze is back about twenty feet from the face, and was down a depth of ten feet at the time of my visit. Here the reef is four feet thick, and of an exceedingly promising character, the quartz broken out in my presence all showing more or less gold, being plainly visible in the black mineral veins. This winze is being sunk, I understand, right under the run of gold obtained by the Lowrie Brothers, and it is quite possible something good may be met with. No stoping has been done at this level. At the mouth of the low level a substantial hopper, capable of holding 200 tons, has been erected, in which there was a considerable quantity of quartz, while at the battery another hopper, capable of holding over 300 tons, is provided. The cost of carting the quartz down is 6s per ton. Owing to the breakage of the driving pulley at the battery, the stampers have been at a standstill since Monday evening last, but a new one is now being cast, ana is expected to be in - position in the early part of next week. The berdans, however, were employed in reducing the ripple tailings. Mr. Wilson informed me that about 60 loads of quartz have been crushed since the late rains, from which 280ozs hard-squeezed amalgam have been obtained from the plates alone, whilst he also has in hand about scwt picked stone, which will be reduced when the general cleaning-up takes place. Altogether the prospects of the mine are fair, but the great drawback is the want of sufficient water for motive purposes. The size of the reef in hand is sufficient to yield abundant quartz to keep the battery constantly employed, especially as the mine is now being brought into good working order, but under present circumstances it does not appear as if the supply of water will last more than six months out of the twelve in the year. Something, therefore, should be done to remedy this drawback, either in the way of providing auxiliary steam motive power, or else erecting a large dam up the creek for the storage of waste water.

I did not visit the Ostrich claim, but was informed that the proprietors have suspended operations in their low level, and have gone higher up the hill to endeavour to cut the Paroquet reef.