REEF MINING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23688, 21 December 1938, Page 19

REEF MINING

ro THE EDUOP Sir,—l am Indebted to “ Miner ” for his sensible letter in your issue of this morning. If Otago, as a mining district, is to take its proper place m the industrial life of our community and country, it seems to me that it will be necessary for our people to read and delve into old history. One of the first things they will find is that, from 1860 to 1580 and probably later, miners, who, incidentally, were just anybody and everybody, were in a state of fret to find the Eldorado just round the corner. You might say there is to-day not 1 per cent, ol them experienced miners in the sense we understand My father had been an off-sider to a horse doctor before becoming a fullblown miner in New Zealand, and he was but one of thousands who bad never dug anything but “ praties ’’ before coming here. So, when a claim slackened off in quantity or quality it was just “up with ‘ bluey ” and away.

Only recently the writer saw a case of a good reef having a small slide; about 15 feet had gone off at a tangent. They followed the tangem, worked it out, and that was the end. If they had gone on for those 15 feet the reef was quite intact. If reefing in Otago were written up, it would be found that operating on one reef was the trouble. Those who are really interested will find, on reading up the matter, on which there is an abundance of literature, good and indifferent, that reefs, like alluvial weaken in parts. If the company cannot stand a short siege it means “ finish." My own opinion is that no company or party should operate only one reef, as where there is one thei’e are others running parallel and probably also at right angles. I was recently looking up some returns from working mines (reefs) in various parts of the world. It will interest people to know —the information is from the Royal School of Mines revised to 1937—that Cripple Creek, Colorado, is operating reefs giving an overall of 3.50 dollars per ton. The average for the Rand, South Africa, is from 6 l-3dwt to Bidwl per ton. Do you not think it is time our people, with such vast resources at our back doors, should take a look at themselves and wake up?—l am, etc., George Livingston. 149 Moray place. C.l.