MINING NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18566, 26 November 1923, Page 7

MINING NEWS.

WAIHI.

LOW LEVEL WORKINGS.

ENCOURAGING PROSPECTS.

[BY TELEGRAPH..—OWS CORRESPONDENT.]

WAIHI. Saturday

Is is a long time since the management of the Waihi Company issued a report embracing so many payable working points as are indicated in the latest cable message. The recently-discovered north lode has shown further improvement as driven upon going north-east, and although a comparatively small body of stone it is disclosing high-grade ore, which will serve to " sweeten " the general ore from less profitable lodes. The assay value of £6 15s per ton for the last 20ft. driven on this reef at No. 5 level is the highest reported by the company for quite a considerable period, and the 53s 3d per ton on the level below, for the last 15ft. assayed, is also highly profitable. At No. 8 level, the drive south on the Edward reef is not yet in touch with pay ore, and for that matter there is nothing to say that quartz of a milling grade will be met with. However, the lode is now much stronger and better defined than at the point of intersection, and as payable ore has been proved to enst in this section of the mine at both ttie ninth and tenth , levels, there is every reason to hope for improved values as the drive is advanced at the No. 8 level. At the ninth level, the drive south on the Edward lode is in good ore, while at No. 10 level, where values were on the low side when the lack of ventilation necessitated a temporary suspensic of operations, there has been no improvement, the quartz being still below paying point. Gratifying as are the values referred to in the upper levels, the most important development mentioned in tho report, so far as the future outlook is concerned, is unquestionably that on the Martha reef at the lowest working level in the mine, No. 14. Here a crosscut to the north is in touch with what appears to be the north section of the parent ore body. After traversing 38ft. of country rock quartz was met with, and it penetrated lor a distance of 6ft., presumably with quartz still in the face, as no mention is made in the report of the footwall country having been reached. The average value is given as 34s 9d per ton, while drives projected to east and west for 6lt. and 10ft. respectively have given values of 31s 3d and 59s 6d per ton. These results, together with 36s 9d per ton for 3£ft. of the lode in the crosscut to the north, reported a month back, and the first pay ore encountered at this depth, firmly establish the existence of milling quartz at the lowest working level. The continuation of operations in this quarter will therefore be awaited with keen interest and no small degree of confidence, and at- the same time the success attending the development of the fourteenth level will doubtless prove a strong incentive to the management/to push on with the exploration of the property at greater depth. [