THE GOLDFIELDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8785, 27 January 1892, Page 6

THE GOLDFIELDS.

[ [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. J [" Thames, Tuesday, | May Queen.—There is a slight improvement in the No. 4 reef going east at No. 2 I level, there being now more quartz than formerly, although still 'of a gritty character. The drive continues to penetrate an excellent sandstone country, so that further improvement may take place very soon. A little gold is showing in the quartz coming to hand from the atones, but there is no particular change to notice' in any of the other workings. Victoria.—Operations at No. 6 level have been greatly retarded of late through the influx of gas, but this morning the workings were all clear, and work was resumed in the western drive upon No. 3 reef. This reef is now a nice compact body of quartz about 2 k feet in thickness, and carries excellent mineral indications, whilst colours of gold have always been seen at every breaking down, which leads to the belief that more remunerative results will be met with shortly. The preliminary works in connection with the testing of the hansingwall leader of ho. 1 reef in the Tookey section 3f the mine are now completed, and work ,vas commenced upon the leader itself this normng. Instead, however, of testing it it the 207-feet level, as was at tirst intended, operations have been commenced it the 160 feet level, as it was found that t. would take too long a time to get the ormer level ready. At the point where tork has been started the leader is somomat jumbled up through the effect of No. reef crossing it, but it is expected that ii improvement will take place as soon as he drive gets clear of the main body. [BY TELEGRAPH—OWN CORRESPONDENTS.] __ Thames, Tuesday. Hazelbank.—Thirty pounds of picked tone came to hand this afternoon from the ross lode in the fourth stope east above ho intermediate level. The reef at this oint is IS inches thick, and carries excel;nt mineral indications. Paeroa, Tuesday. i All hands at Russell's works at Waite- i auri have been temporarily suspended. : The show in Kersey Cooper's claim con- ' Inues to improve, and extra hands have een put on to get out 50 tons of ore for 1 xport. J WAIOMO. j

; In connection with this district, there 13 1 ' a decided improvement, and matters are < g looking brisk. The building for the new 1 plant is near completion, and the founds- } , tions for the machinery are being laid. The * plant, so far as I can learn, will consist of a r" stone-breaker, pans, settlers, &c. The ° motive power is a five-foofc Pelton wheel, \ the water supply corning from the Waiomo and Silver Crown creeks. Altogether, the I / Battery Flat has quite a busy appearance, f •* In the mines there is not a great deal of f work going on just now. The Gem is shut s » down awaiting the completion of the reduc- * 0 tion plant, that mine having about SOO tons of ore to grass, ready for transit by the £ ," ground tramway. A parcel of about nine o tons has been taken from the Broken " ~ Hills mine and carted to the bone mill j plant, on the Tararu Road, for treatment by t the Cassell process. Till that lot is put ii through work will, I am given to under- b stand, be suspended in the mine. Steady n 3 > work is being done in the Monowai. Tlio G ' reef in the upper level having been driven " into for some 14 feet, with no sign of the J " footwall, the proprietors determined to drive s on the reef, and in doing so, lam pleased *j| !r to say that some first-class ore has been 0 n unearthed. Altogether, the prospects of h '• this mine tire undoubtedly good. There is y no work going on at present in the Mount ii * Zeehan, as the proprietors are awaiting the " completion of the road down the Pohui c ! Creek. There is a good deal of road work f,' l > going on in this district. The repairs to , a the Waiomo Creek Road have been coma pleted and done well, and the Paroquet j 1 Road will be finished this week. The Pohui f, ' Road drags its slow length along, but as n, * additional hands have been put on lately hi better progress is now being made. There sc is one thing that is certainly keeping the tl ? district back, and that is, the number of j :?( ■J licensed holdings that are at present held " totally ur.worked, the ground in too many %v f , instances having been taken up for purely „ 1 speculative purposes. The same remarks £ in this connection would be applicable to \ c s other parts of the Thames gold fields. I T ■ may safely venture to say that 1592 will see n Waiomo to the front as a bullion-producing fa 1 district. 9 — ■ .... , 1 THE NEW FIND CLAIM, WAITEj KAURI. j [FROM A CORKKSrONDKNT.J j; Waihi, January 20. tii 5 _ Having a day to spare yesterday, I had a ride over to Waitekauri, and from there 1 walked out to the much talked-about JNew ) Find Claim at the head of the Komata * Creek. The distance from Russell's battery 1 is about three miles along a leading spur 5 which rises up from the back of the battery i and along which there is a good, well- ■ defined track. At present there are two i men employed clearing the scrub and

making sidecuttings where necessary, so as to make a pood pack road. In several places there are rather stiff pinches, but these can be easily avoided, as the formation of the pack track is proceeded with. It will take about three or four weeks to complete this work,.when a person will easily reach the claim in half an hour's riding from Waitekauri. It just took a little over an hour to reach the claim, where I met Mr. R. Worth, managing shareholder, who is at all times glad to receive visitors, and to show them the different reefs on the ground. At his invitation I descended the face of the hill for a considerable distance. In some places it is almost perpendicular. Having safely reached the bottom, we were at once on the scene of present operations, where I found two men employed driving a crosscut upon a large reef. As soon ae this drive was started quartz was met with showing visible gold, and a body of stone, seven feet thick,' was cut through, the whole of which gave loose prospects with the dish, and panned out a deal better when any of the solid stone was crushed with pestle and mortar and washed. After passing this reef, a further distance of 15 feet was driven, when another strong body of quartz was met with, containing equally as good ore as the reef first cut through. AS the time of my visit the hangingwall was just in sight, the lode being~ fully 16 feeb in thickness, and running in a north-east and south-westerly direction. In my presence, several dishes of stuff were washed from different portions of this reef,' ?nd good prospects were obtained from each, whilst gold was visible to the naked eye in nearly every pieceof solid stone broken down'. This crushed and panned off gave an good or better prospect still, so there is no doubt but the precious metals are well distributed through the whole of the reef. Whilst going up Mr. Worth pointed out the reef on the surface where the reef was exposed and had a little work done upon it, and he informed me that equally good prospects were obtainable as at the lower level. Where seen here it would bo fully 70 feet in height above the tunnel, and when we had ascended another 60 feet or so the reef was seen again where it had been poked in upon. A piece of stone taken from here at the time showed gold freely where broken off. After disposing of a hearty dinner, a move was made to look at what is called the crossreef, which is situated a short distance along the side of the hill, but at a considerably higher level than other reefs. We found it a strong compact body of stone fully three feeb thick. Ib carries coarser gold than the two larger reefs, and if it continues its present course would junction with the big reef at a distance of 150 feet from where cut at present; and, as both are carrying payable ore, there is every likelihood of a rich patch being meb with there. Another large reef has also jeen cut through on the opposite side of the spur in which traces of bullion have been found. There is no doubt this is a most valuable piece of property, as altogether there are five distinct gold-bearing lodes running through the whole length of the claim. The main difficulty is that it is situated at such a distance from any crushing plant, and ifc will be a most expensive job indeed to make a dray road or tram line to the Waitekauri battery, which is the nearest plant. The shareholders have secured a battery site about one mile lower down the creek than the claim, and if they can only manage to get a small plant erected thereon, so as to give the stuff a good and thorough trial, there is no doubt capitalists j would soon be offering to erecb a large and - 2

powerful crushing plant on terms that would beadvantageous to both parties. A few weeks before the holidays a ton of stone was taken from the outside reef tunnel level and packed down to the Thames, treated at the School of Mines, and gave a return at the rate of £28 per ton. The shareholders are to send a small parcel of one or two hundredweight of stone from the large reef to Auckland this week to bo treated by a different process to that at the Thames. A payable return is expected. The proprietors, who are all working men, are deserving of great credit for their pluck and perseverance in endeavouring to open up this ground without the assistance of outside capital, and richly deserve an ample reward in the shape of good fat dividends forthcoming by this time next year. JUNE MANAGERS' REPORTS. - VIA - —Since my last the drive on reef [ in No. 2 level has been extended 17 feet. There is a good improvement in the reef in this level. The country has changed for the better, and is now all that can be desired for gold. The reef has widened out and is now five feet, with two well defined walls. The mineral indications are similar to those in No. 3 level, where the rich run of ore was met with. lam in hopes of opening a valuable block of ground in this level, which will give 150 feet backs from the present face, and will be considerably more as the drive is extended, r rom assays made during the week the ore coining from this drive has very much imS roved. It is of a good payable character, During the week there lias been a contract let for driving 100 feet in No. 3 level at 13s 3d per foot. Since starting the contractors have driven 15 feet. The country is improving. No. 4 level The contractors in this level have driven 40 feet for the week the country is still favourable. ' Prior of Kaiuka.—The drive has boen extended a further distance of nine feet through an excellent class of country. The third stope has been extended a further distance of -5 feet, the quartz averaging about 12 inches in thickness, and in breaking down some nice strong dabs of gold were seen from which a few pounds of picked stone were selected. I have also commenced to rise for the fourth stope, which is up about six feet. We completed cleaning out and re-timbering the winze, which is down a depth of 20 feet, and sinking was commenced on Friday. I intend forwarding the quartz to the battery tor treatment about the latter end of the coming week. City ok Doxedix.—We are still sinking the winze in the solid between the course of the two reefs, viz., the City reef. We have not yet reached the floor of the original level, and the Black, or footwall, reef is still keeping its course in the footwall, consequently there is some six or eight feet of country between the two. There is very Little doubt from appearances that this winze will open up a payable block of ground. Souvenir.—During the week we have extended the drive ou haugiagwall of main •eef a distance of seven feet, thus making he total distance driven since starting this , r ear 13 feet. _ The country through which we lave passed is a good description of ground or making good progress, and if we are ortunatc enough to pick up a cross leader or ■earn crossing into the main lode, it should lave a good effect upon reef. Moaxataiari. — The usual fortnightly leaning up and retorting took place to-day, or the moderate return of 171oz of retorted ;old. for this yield there were 57S tons of [uartz and 40lb of picked stone treated, n the mine the usual works are being coninued, but I regret to say there is very little mprovemeut in the quality of the quartz 1 iroken out from the various lodes. Gold is : i lO frequently seen in the stopes ou the 1 iolden ajje reef, and in the workings on the ' ■ew, or Dawn of Hope, lead at the Point i lussell level. Driving has again been ' tarted here, so that we will shortly be in a < osition to determine the value of this lead < nd its identity. At the battery the number 1 f stampers employed on company's quartz l as been reduced to '25. ( Calliope.—Good progress has been made ' i the drive on the footwall leader. 14 feet J aving been driven during the week. The < ountry is still of a very favourable descrip- 1 ion, being well interlaced with mineral and £ inty veins. The leader has also been broken own to face, and averages about six inches 1 •ide, containing very promising mineral in- r ications, while good colours of gold were \ •eely seen through the quartz. There lias > et been much done oil the Nos. 1 and 2 c angingwall leaders, the men being engaged 1 ding the quartz down and looking after J le crushing. Eighteen loads of quartz and in 0 picked stone were crushed at Mr. s nil s battery for 590z retorted gold, which t ■as reduced to 570z 17dwt after melting. I i\OKFoi,K. —For the past week the drive <■ sing east at the low level has been extended 'J further distance of six feet, making the >i )tal distance 171 feet from the crosscut, t he reef still averages about five feet, and is inning through a good channel of couutry I ir gold. f - . _ rj [BY TELECRAFir.—PRESS ASSOCIATION".] Dpnedi.v, Tuesday. ( - The Dunedin shareholders in the Big " iver Mining Company, Reefton, resolved , '•day to oppose the proposed amalgamaon with the Lord Edward Company. "