THE ACHILLES GOLDFIELDS COMPANY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10731, 20 February 1897, Page 2

THE ACHILLES GOLDFIELDS COMPANY.

BULLENDALE, SKIPPERS.

(Fiiom Our Arrowtown Correspondent.) i.

j It is deemed necessary tb explain before starting my remarks upon this mine that "Your j Own." hag had every opportunity during j repeated visits to the mine and a residence of upwards of 33 years in this district of following | the history of the Achilles, late Phcbnis, mine, j and that he can bear witness to the magnitude j and multiplicity of the troubles and obstacles jMr Fred Evans* the managing director'of the i mine, has had to overcome in its development | and in bringing it to a successful issue. " Your Own", therefore speaks with a freedom and unr'esfcrve, and a degree of confidence in the prospects of the mine, and of Mr Evans's share in having brought about the present satisfactory state, which in a stranger or mere casual visitor to the mine would be unwarrantable and reprehensible. _ "Your Own" wishes the reader fo bear thia in mind when strong and pronounced opinion's upon the capabilities of the mine strike his observation, br Men pointed personal allusions kve made upon its management in the following remarks.

; The important developments in this mine which haVe for some tipae been anticipated by those best qualified to form and pronounce verdicts to that effect, how being realised and perhaps even exceeded, call for more than passing or casual notice. Moreover, what is now evolving itself in this mine is likely to revolutionise hitherto existing notions of quartz mining in Otago. These developments have now reached a stage at which they are no longer the children of promise or of hope, but they demonstrate themselves in tangible, measurable forms* which iir'A endorsed by Weighty'"cakes " !of dimensions that leave no room for doubt as ;to their importance to the shareholders of the : mine. Pleasing as tbis phase of the question . may be to those interested in that way, there is 1 another side to the subject that demands a full exposition of the events now unfolding themselves in the Achilles mine, because of the bearing they have upon lode mining in Otago, Which. just now is tinder a cloud on account of adverse reports far which there is neither rhyme nor reason. MINING NOTIOSIS * promulgated by a man in authority and circulated in Government reports'are of a nature calculated to impress the public mind with a strong emphasis, especially when such rephrta are unfavourable. One of the mining notions here referred to is the one proclaiming that the lodes in Otago do not " live down." Such a statement in itself is, to .say the least of it, unscientific, as itis not explained what is meant by the term " living down." It is scarcely possible to conceive that the present surface line of New Zealand. can be meaht as the line from which to measure "dowii," and without adopting a fixed line froni which to start, the term " living down " can have no meaning worth considering. Payable gold-bearing qflnrtz has been traced in the Glenrock mine, Macetown, to a point that is upwards of 200.0fb vertically below the surface. In the Achilles mine lodes have been traced from' the surface to a depth of upwards of 1200 ft, with the pleasing experience that they increase in width, in richness, in all the indications of per--mahehce and regularity, in both strike and dip, the deeper they go, and as they are .tracked into the bowels of Mount Aufum they may ultimately be 7000 ft or 8000 ft or more below the surface. So much for ihe statemeut that the Otago.lodes do not " live down " ; but when it comes to stating a litiiit at which they mast die, and fix that limit at 700 ft without fixing a starting point to measure from, ordinary reason is ■puzzled to believe that it is listening to sane, argument. What has really been proved by mining exploitations in Otage is that continuous lodes do not live near the surface; that whera quantity is found in outcrop it occurs only in broken, isolated blocks, and that therefore'permanent lodes must be looked for at considerable depths below the surface. . .This view of the question is fully borne out and confirmed by past and present experiences in the Achilles mine, and hence the value of the lessons ihey teach to quartz miners. The distinguishing difference betweeh the' Achilles ; and most other: mines in Otago is that the [ Achilles has had, and still has, all the advantages bf persistently persevering management that did not allow itself to be beaten by disappointments, a very small modicum of which was sufficient to wipe out hundreds of other mines, the consequence beiDg that discoveries of the roost valuable kind to the owners of the Achilles have been made, and which diseoterifes alsb shed a light npon quartz mining calculated to explode before long the pernicious notion that New Zealand lodes do not live down. It is clear that had Mr Evans, the managing director of the Achilles, allowed himself to be discouraged by any of the thousand and one disappointments that beset mining and had thrown up the sponge, the present valuable discoveries would not have been made, quartz mining would have received » severe blow—might, indeed, have been totally extinguished,—and would probably have lain dormant for ah indefinite length of time. As it is, the present condition of the Achilles mine is such as to plainly show that lodes'of immeasurably greater value exist at a depth of at least 1200 ft below than at or near the surface, and that the lodes increase in body and in richness the deeper they are followed. Por this

VALUABLK LESSON the colony is indebted chiefly to Me«srs Bullen Bros., aa the owners of tho old Phcenix, now the Achilles mine, and to their indomitable manager, Mr Fred Evans, who has devoted the best years of his life to developing the nresenfc splendid resources of the mine, and their names are likely to live in the mining history of New Zealand for all time.

llt would be impossible—however instructive lit might be—to recount the. diflftculties that * beset mining in some parts of Ofc&go, bufc a few instances in the life history of the old Phcenix will serve to illustrate what they really were In the days.of the old zig-zag track afc Deep Creek ifc took about 60 men the better part of a day to lower a battery or mortar box weighing half a ton a distanoe of 600 or 700 feet down the track, or rather hill-sideling, sloping at an angle of about 65deg, at great risks to the box and to the men. But we need not go so far back as that. Afc fche time of my visit fco the* mine a cask of machine oil, weighing 3cwt, arrived on a sleigh drawn by two powerful, horses, which took the better part of a day to bring it up from the depot, near Skippers Bridge, to the battery, a distance of little better than five miles, at a cost of £1 8s 4d, or nearly 6s per mile. This little item Bhows whafc the mine has to contend with afc the present time. Nor hava attempts at creating a better state of affairs been wanting. Both Government and county council have been moved times out of number, and though not always ineffectually, what was done was only grudgingly done or half done. The present developments io the miur>, it may be supposed, will command more attention aa to its real wants, and a better state of things will probably prevail in the near future. The fact.of the approaches to the Skippers Bridge being taken in hand would argue that the claims of the mining industry in general, and of the Achilles mine in particular, are being recognised. Whafc delay in success in lode mining on account of difficulties of all kinds may mean was strikingly ehown by Mr Evans pointing out to me a young man working in the battery, and saying :" Do you see that youujf fellow there ? His mother was a little girl when this mine started; now her son is nearly a grown man, and we have just attained tho success we hava striven for during the last 30 yearß!" This little incident will give mining investors an inkling what mining developments may me*n. ; And let no one run away with the idea that the Achillea mine is singular in this respect. Many j other mines may be quoted the success of whioh ! was delayed for many, many weary years, and which came out right in the end ; while, on the other hand, thousands of good mines collapsed, and ara now lying idle for the want of enough of weary years of delay and anxiety and ! deferred hopes. ! III.OCX LODES. Dealing with subjects of the u,,^-*; importance to mining at a juncture when au almost fatal blow has been dealt, the first desideratum is that the writer should make himself clearly understood. For this purpose a few explanatory remarks are here interlarded. In lode mining the general object is to get down a shaft to a desired level on a lode. When that level j has been reached drives are driven along ths . course of the lode, next uprises and passes arc j excavated in the roof of the drives to connect them, with ofcher similar works at a higher level, j and finally, when the drives ancl uprises are ! sufficiently advanced tha work of stoping out commences, beginning at the roofs of the drives j aud working upwards. It will thus be aeen j that a very considerable amount of preparatory I work is required to open a mine, to say nothing •of the erection of machinery, construction of j water races, roads and tracks, and all the other ; smaller works. However, if tho mine manager jis fortunate enough to moet wifch a strong and j continuous body of stone in his stopes all is ! well and plain sailing; but if this is nofc fche j case all the work that hug been done is in vain j and looking for the lode becomes a tedious, disappointing, and expensive operation, as in the

Otago surface blocks of quartz there are no indications whatever in what direction the missing blocks of quartz have been moved. Crosscuts are put ia and driven to great lengths, and in looking for lodes in this manner many hundreds, or even thousands of feet may be driven uselessly, conaumiug months or years of fruitless labour and . expense. This is by far the greatest cause of delay and disappointment in lode mining... To apply this lesson-to the Achilles mine it may be stated that after attaining partial successes interrupted by many disappointments, it was discovered that the blocks of payable quar.tz met with originally belonged to One lode having been dislocated by more or less erratic movements of the surface. At what is known as the low level adit the . extreme movements amounted to more than 200 ft, within which distance payable blocks of quartz might exist. The country closed within these , 200 ft nn bounded p.n the north by.the.north lode, and vi the south by the main lode, between which r oss the middle lode. These three lines of lodes have a maih east and west direction, and though they run parallel they do not do so continuously, for where a. block of stone occura on the line of the north no parallel block will be fodnd on the line Of the middle nor on that of the main lode, and so ou with all the line 3of the other lodes, In speaking of lines of lodes ifc must not be supposed that theoe lines resemble a line drawn by the aid of a-ruler on paper. Lines in contorted country twist and turn in all.the possible directions of the compass, and there is no accounting for. their vagaries. Mr Evans put the whole case in a nutshell by remarking that he had to work three mines to look for one lode.

Bach line of lode may be taken as the result of a separate movement in tha crust of the earth, therefore had there been two iihes of blocks or one movement only ifc *rt*buld be easy to find _any missing block ; but io the case of the Achilles there were three movements, which naturally give 16 points within the country roughly, bounded by the - north- and the main lodes where a block of quartz might possibly exiat. To this must be added the disturbing effects of several cross courses, displacing the whole formation and jitmblihg ahbut the" isolated blocks of quartz until the difficulty of looking for them becomes as great as looking for a needle in a baystaok. "No human ingenuity has succeeded in reducing to anything like order or tracing the movements of the surface of New Zealand, and the mine manager is left entirely to his own resources to grope about in the dsrk as best he can. This exposition 'gives the key to the numerous mining failures New Zealand is charged with. The events in the Achilles mine are likely to shed a most welcome light upon these difficulties, placing mining in New Zealand upon a'sounder basis ahd renewing confidence in an industry of the greatest importance to the colony. ' These sanguine and hopeful terms on so uncertain a subject as mining call' for a' f6w explanatory remarks to show upon what foundations they rest. After "many long years of actual exploitations in thi 'mirih the*, theory evolved itself that the blocks of stone met with belonged originally to one lode,-but it-was a theory that required confirmation. The lowlevel adit, however, furnished proofs that fully bore out what, had previously been-'surmised, and- further exploitations at lower levels also revealed the fact that all the lines of blocks were converging, indicating it junction in strike as well as in dip.

lb goes without saying thafc the work in the mine has always been conducted'on welldigested and defined plans;' but the erratic arid uncertain nature of the Unas of lodes often defeated the most logical deductions drawn from them, and it was not until the real characteristics of the lines of lodes revealed themselves that the plans became of actual assistance to the management.

This stage having now beflta attained, it is possible to speak with that degree of. confidence of the mine as just shadowed forthi md to add that the success of the Achilles mine is assured for generations to come. -

GOLD IN BLOCKY LODES,

It would appear that the uncertain and disturbed state of the lodes! had also had an effect upon the distribution of the gold in the blocks of quarlz, which is anything but even or regular. . The occurrence of gold in the blocks is erratic, jumping from the hangingwall to the foot-wali without any indication or apparent cause, or it may occur all through the stone in varying quantities. What effect this may have on the outpufco'f amalgam at the mill is shown by fche daily record kept, which shows a range of from.lloz to 2S7oz for a.day of 21 honfs m each, ahd within the same mohtb fche quantity of quartz passed through fche mill on each day being the same. Supposing, now, thafc a tunnel pierces a block of quartz at the spot that yielded the lloz,' the block might be condemned as not payable; Whereas had the 28Joz spot been hifc by the piercing ..drive, ifc might raise expectations beyond the real value of the block. Here, therefore, is another complication of perplexing puzzles to baffle the mine mapaf/er. Iv such a state of affairs the cleverest and most sagacious rnihe manager is left entirely ab the mercy of whatever guess at the probabilities of fche situation may suggest.

The information above detailed will show the difficulties Mr Evans had to contend against in the past, but gradually they are disappearing one after another, and the mine is fast growing to a magnitude and extent entitling it to be ranked as one of tho mosfc. cotaplete, best exploited, best managed, and mosfc valuable mines in New Zealand, and ifc is safe to say that in the future success will be the distinguishing feature of the operations, and that that success will be regular and permanent. This statement may sound as a quotation from a prospectus, but fortunately ifc is demonstrable, as the sequel will show. •

THE ACHILLES MINE WORKS,

As is now well known, this mine is situated at Bullendale, near the head of Skippers Greek,, on the western slopes of Mount Aurum, from which emerge the richest gold-bearing streams in New Zealand. Bullendale is a township of about 200 souls, all depending upon "the minei There is a public library, which also serves as a place of public worship, a school, and a hotel. The surroundings are extremely beautiful. What is known as the township consists of Messrs Cotter's store, where also is the post office, and consequently is the business, ceutre. Messrs Cotter have a way, outside keeping a very complete store, of making life in so 'out-of-the-world a place easier than otherwise it would be—by their obliging manner, especially as postmasters and so forth, and by nob keeping to the strict rules of hours, a convenience which is highly prized by those working on shifts ; and in many other ways they do theii-share fco make life agreeable at Bullendale. • '

Arrived afc the mine, "Your Own "was courteously received by Mr Evans, who, being buoy at- the furnace retorting amalgam-, afc ths time, banded me over *to Mr W. G. Mouat, the underground manager, who, being an old frieud datitlg back to the early days of Nenthorn, gave me a oordial welcome, after which we descended the perpendicular shaft., which is 150fb deep, on a* tour of inspection, and soon landed afc the bottom iri the most comfortable manner From the bottom of the shaft starts No. '2 level,, with which the lower levels are couneoted by a grade so perfectly true thafc looking down it you appear to be looking through a square tube. Up this grade the quattz is hauled in trucks by an engine worked by compressed air, the trucks containing scwt each, in which it is sent to the surface, where the quartz is emptied into self-deliveriug paddocks whence io goes in trucks holding 25cwt to tbe buttery, where all the fins stuff is sifted out on grizzlers, the coarae lumps being reduced by rock-breakers ; thenco ifc passes into automatic feeders which pay the quartz, now reduced to a uniform size, into the mortar boxes. The - automatic feeders are Mr Evans's owu invention, and wore constructed ou the -spot under his supervision. They have now been in use for 25 yeara, and have given perfect satisfaction. Thus the quartz is conveyed'from the face, of the mine where it waa first; broken*' out fco the battery without being handled oftener than at the initial filling into the first trucks.

Returning now to No. 2 level, it may be stated that it is quite impossible to convey an idea of the amount of labour done in the mine in looking for missing portions of the lodes. . It must suffice to say thafc there is a perfect network of drives in all directions, but for all the purposes of this article it wilt suffice to confine the attention to the actual work now in progress.

At No. 2 levd the Hues of lodex have converged -so much thafc they are only 105 ft apart, so thafc. the work of looking for any missing portion is reduced to one-half of whafc ifc w»s at the low-level adifc, 120 ft above No. 2 level. Now, to carry out, the argument: At No. 4 level, 184 ft below No. 2 level, the distance is ouly 68ft between the converging lodes, and in place of the middle lode, which has so far not been located at this level, there is a body of phillitic rock that carries payable gold for a distance that has not yeb been correctly defined. If the three lines of lodes continue fco converge at the same ratio they will unite at a level about 90ft below No. 5 level, and it may be safely anticipated that,they will form one strong and true lode of considerable extent aud richness when the whole energies of the management and plant can be turned to raising quartz of known quality only, and blind stabbing for probable blocks of quartz, and the cost and loss of time connected wifch it, will come to an cud.

So much for the mathematical proof of tbe statement made above to the effect that in the future success will be the distinguishing feature of the operations, and that th»t succeps will be regulac and permanent. Now. arguiug from analogy, observations in tho Achilles mine show, first, that the deeper the stone is traced into the bowels cf the earth the richer and moro permanent ifc bftcomes, and second, that whenever there is a good big body of stone there also is the_ gold moat plentiful, and occurs in solid grains, whereas tho gold is scarce and fine where the lodes aro narrow and near the surface. At the presont poiut of working, at a depth of 1200 it below the outcrop of the lode, there in a body of stone 13ft wide from which the last* 500

tons yielded 5250z 15dwt, or at the rate of loz 15dwt lgr to the ton, the whole width of the lode being sent to the mill.

In the face of these.facts itis exceedingly difficult to believe that the Otago reefs do not live down, or that they die out at 700 ft, and as Government reports should not be discredited, and should be above suspicion, the only assumption is that there must be something wrong somewhere. Beasoning, however, from the established facts as disclosed'by the Achilles aud hundreds—not to *say thousands—of other mines, the inference is that Borne surface disturbance has broken up the lodes at higher levels, and that the real permanent reefs of not only Otago, but of the Middle Island, most be 100 ked for at considerable distances below the surface, and if the Achilles mine can be taken as a criterion, they are w >rth looking for, arid when found would turn Otago into one of the richest and most profitable lode mining districts in the southern hemisphere. From %yhat has been unfolded above it is safe to say that there is no mine in New Zealand, and few elsewhere, that can show a life history like that of the Achilles, and which has attained a more , _ ' BRILLIANT success. Aside, however, from, all distinguishing features connected with this mine, and confining ourselves entirely to hard facts,, it may be .pronounced as" one of the best, if hot the best, miop in; New Zealand, holding out well justified hopes.of a loag aud prosperous,career, capable of yielding returns that willifcmake one .of the most sought after investments not only in London', but also in the colony, ' . Nor is this all, for beyond all doubt the success attained by the Achilles and the lessons it teaches mining men must infallibly infuse new life ih lode miniug in Otago, and turn the new energy into directions quite opposite to the present preconceived notions that New Zealand lodes do not live down.'

PRESENT EXPLORTATIONS IN THE ACHILLES MINiS:..

are chiefly confided to No. 5 level, and are of so encouraging a nature that the chief energies of the management and .plant are directed to their development. As stated, this level has reached the depth of 1200 ft below the highest outcrop of the lode on the hill sidling above it. It is connected by.two winzes 160 ft apart with No. 2 level, which iv its turn is connected with the surface by the present vertical working shaft 150 ft deep. A grade already spoken of leads down from No. 2 to No. 5 leyel, and is fitted with a double line of rails for the ascendiog and descending trucks. These connections provide the most perfect ventilation that could be desired, as well as all the other neceasary conveaiences of access, so that it may be pronounced to be in full working order. The two winzes are in course of being connected. The stone now being attacked had a .width of 7ft at No. 4 level, buc at a depth of S3ffc—that is at No. 5 level—ifc had widened oub to 13ffc, the whole of which is sent to the mill and is yielding as above stated. The stone in sight is calculated to gladden the heart of any miner. It is safe to say that it will keep the present 30 heads pf stampers fully going, for, the rest of the century ; and there are ample promises that the mine will live to see the year 2000 at least,, and how long after it is not possible to say. . . Explorations are also carried on upon what is known as ,

THE PROMISED LAND LODE, a make which seemed to be independent of the ofcher lodes spoken of extending eastward; while the north, middle, and main lodes appear to Improve as they go westerly, converging in that direction as well as in their dip. All the lodes underlie north. The Promised Land lode has yielded some splendid. returns in years past, and promises to develop into a lode of great importance.

In addition to these lodes there is

southberg's beei?

in the Otago Company's ground, which, being the pioneer reef 'of the Wakatipu Goldfield, created no mean sensation in its early days. This reef has not been met with in the lower workings of the Achilles mine for the Simple reasou that they do not extend far enough- in the direction of-the Otago Company?s ground, which lies Tto the west. However, if the rule relating to the increase in richness with the increase in depth applies to the Otago reef, something of a sensational nature may be looked for when the reef has been struck.'

(To be continued.)