THE GOLDFIELDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9270, 4 August 1893, Page 6

THE GOLDFIELDS.

[BY TELEGRAPH.— OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Thames, Thursday. Sharemarket.No list was issued to-day, the weather being too unpropitious for speculators to put in an appearance at " the corner."

May Queen. —Owing no doubt to the heavy rain experienced for several days past the water at No. 4 level has diminished but very little during the present week, consequently the intention that had been formed to get up steam this morning in order to make a start to clean up the level had to be abandoned. lb is probable, however, that a start will be made with the work on Saturday morning, as the manager is desirous of commencing operations on the reef in the drives and stopes on Monday morning next. Moanataiari.—The various works in progress in this mine are being pushed forward with about the usual result. Nothing of importance has taken place in any of the faces, but a pound or two of picked stone has been secured from the little specimen leader in the stopes below the Point Russell level, and also a pound or two* from the stopes upon the footwall branch of the Golden Age reef above the level. Some nice strong colours and dabs of gold were seen to-day whilst breaking down from th.-ee to four feet of Kelly's, at the Hazelbank No. 1 level, but in the present face the leader is rather small and somewhat broken. The other parts of the mine are unchanged.

ANOTHER TRIUMPH FOR THE

CASSEL PROCESS.

I The declaration of a dividend by the Try Fluke Company has naturally rejoiced the hearts of the shareholders and directed attention to the means whereby this dividend has been earned. When pome months back the announcement was made that the Try Fluke had added a cyanide plant to its battery, hope* were freely expressed that the old mine would once more enter into the dividend rank. Thab these expectations have been realised is due entirely to the fact that much gold which formerly was lost to the mine is now recovered and available for dividends. On looking at the returns we find that instead of the £300 or £400 which was previouslyreturnedmonthly from the battery these amounts have been increased by — £837, £400, £510, £503, £S9O, £670, £704, or a total of £4574 won from the tailings on hand and those produced for the seven months up to the end of July, during which the process has been at work. The lesult of this has enabled i the company to pay off the cost of the plant, buy an adjoining property, and now to declare a divided, whilst leaving a substantial balance in hand, and all from stuff yielding only Bdwt in the battery— or 21s per ton. Doubts, however, have been expressed as to whether these returns would not almost entirely cease as soon as the heap of tailings on hand should be worked out, bub the statement for July just received shows that the sum of £704 has been recovered from the tailing-, four-fifth"! of which have been produced during the last few weeks, and as the battery returns pay for mining and milling the whole of the profit from the cyanide is available for dividends. We are hoping to see all our mines participating in results such as these. On looking over the latest returns of the working of cyanide on our tailings we find that during Juno rive works treated about 1600 tons of ladings for an extraction of 12720z, value £1812 !)s Id. This does not include the result of the Crown mine, which is dependent for its very existence on the process, and treats all its ore direct. A noticeable feature is that nearly one-half of the total gold produced bj the Kuaotunu district is recovered from baitings by the cyanide process, and we are expecting that with the advent of the Waihi and Komata plant an even larger proportion of the total gold output of the North Island will be credited to the same agency. The following is the output in New Zealand from the Macarthur-Forrest process for June, from tailings : — Oz. dwt. Value. Tons. North Islam) :— Try Fluke ... .303 0 £670 2 0 576 Great Mercury .38 0 73 5 0 189 To Aroha .. 483 0 2.(7 2 0 Nilverton ... 299 5 421 5 0 280

Middle Island .— Boatman's ... 14S 5 350 0 0 420 Total ...1,272 0 £1,812 4 0 This does nob include the returns from the Crown mine, as these are nob yet published. The whole of the ore of this mine has been treated direct by the process for an extraction of over 'M per cent of its iwsiiy value. Percentage of cyanide output :—Percentage of total gold produced in Kuaotunu district, 40 per cent. ; percentage of total gold produced in the .North Island, '221 per cent.

Rkd Mercury (Kuaotunu).-—The mine manager telegraphed yesterday : — " Reef from 1- to LI inches wide. Gold in every stone pounded to-day. livery reason to believe cut western branch, underlying west. Gold by pounding. Reef not broken down. Break down to-night. Country looks well for gold,"