MINING NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17263, 12 September 1919, Page 5

MINING NEWS.

WAIHI. HIGH PRICE OF SILVER. INFLUENCE OX RETURNS.

The high price of silver has an important bearing on the value of the bullion output from the Waihi Gold Mining Company's mine. According to the latest quotation the price of silver on the London market is 5s Id per standard ounce, whereas it is always calculated at the mine, in estimating the monthly returns, at 2s per standard ounce. On that basis, therefore, the difference today between the estimated value of the company's bullion and the actual market value shows an increase of 3s Id per t.unoe. Owing to fluctuations in the price of .silver that figure cannot be taken as the average increase in value over a-period ;f. say, 12 months, but a conservative estimate places the difference between the estimated value of a year's output of bullion and its realisation value at an increase of about one-fifth. That was the case in 19.18, when t'ic output, according to the mine figures, was valued at £326,000 in round numbers, and the sum realised in London was £387,000, to increase of £61.000. The returns for the current year to date show a, total estimated value of £192,095. At the same rate of increase obtained on realisation last year an extra £38,500 may be added as the excess value of the silver, which would bring this year's returns to date to £230.595. In the Waihi Company's bullion the silver contents always exceed the gold contends in quantity. In 1918. for instance, the average extraction of gold and silver per ton from the ore treated forked out at, gold, 7dwt; silver, 2oss 6dwt. The company's gold being calculated at the mine on a V>asi<t of 84s per 02, the average estimated value of that metal extracted per ton of ore was, therefore, £1 9s 5d and the silver 4s sd. MINE MANAGERS' REPORTS. Kuranui< —During the week the contractors extended the Magazine tunnel 12ft, making the total distance 1672 ft. The country in the face is carrying more iron sulphides than usual and a small flow of water has been met with.