Mining.

Otago Witness, Issue 1005, 4 March 1871, Page 10

Mining.

THE CALEDONIAN 00. 'S CLAIM AT THE THAMES.

The Grahamstown correspondent of the Southern Cross writes :—: —

I think I shall be guilty of no exaggeration in calling this mine the richest in the world in work. It is true that gold mines are proverbial for their patchiness, but such a patch as that of the Caledonian is exceedingly exceptional if not altogether so. I can call to mind no parallel case Bave perhaps thatof the celebrated Poverty Reef, Sandy Creek, which is said to have turned out one million pounds' worth of the precious metal j and even admitting the truth of this I see no reason why the Caledonian should not in the end very far eclipse that magnificent yield. So far as may be judged by present appearances such a consummation is far from improbable. I went through the upper workings of the mine this morning, and noted, so far as a flying visit permitted, the lay pf the ground and the character and appearance of the lode. As the most of your readers are aware, the Caledonian Company took up work on the lode where it had been traced to the boundary of the claim in the Golcien Crown main low level. It was followed in the same direction about N.E. for more than 100 ft, but did not retain the characteristic that rendered it so famous as a gold -producer in the Crown ground. It made poorer, and also much smaller, up to a point about 80ft from the Crown boundary, and where No. 2 shaft was sunk : and then began to open out again, and made larger, in some places 13ft thick, until a remarkable slide that intersects the pountry there was reached. Beyond this slide the lode haf» not been tracer^ on the upper levels. A great deal of the lode — all in fact that was worth anything — -was gtoped out on the upper side of the main drive, and then to a short distance below it \ and then a winjje was opened to test it at a lower depth, and No. 2 shaft was sunk. The bottom of this shaft strikes the winze at about 12ft. from the mouth ; and at about 15ft. from the shaf,t to the westward the first of the rich stone that has been since so constantly getting was struck, The reef was there from 2ft. to 3ft. thick, aad dipped,

as it still does, at an angle of about. 45degrees. Whether the course of the shot of gold has been affected by the slide above-mentioned, I am not prepared to say ; but certain it is that the shot seems to be going nearer .at right angles to the reef than it did, and if this direction is maintained the shot will pass through the Young American ground into the Belfast. The Blide intersects the plane of the lode diagonally, or from S.E. to N.W., but had not cut the lode off or affected its value, seeing that the latter has been found below the slide in the main low-level of the company's main shaft, and there is almost as rich as it is above. I had not time to visit that part of the mine ; but I feel quite justified in saying so much regarding its value upon the assertion of Mr W. Rowe, the manager. The two low-levels are being connected as fast as possible by a winze sunk from the bottom of No. 2 shaft. Within a couple of fathoms of this one another is also going down upon the lode ; and out of it the specimen stuff is coming. Here the lode is fully 3£ft. thick, and streaked with gold from top to bottom — not in mere patches but in solid runs. In the lode at the bottom of the winze was left sticking stone richer than any that came out this morning, some of which was lodged for exhibition at the Bank of New Zealand. I should say that the specimen stone already taken out came from a space in the lode not larger than 12ft. by 15ft. If so much gold, say 12,0000z., has come out of so small a space, what may not be expected out of the immense area of reef between No. 2 shaft and the main shaft 1 The length of the atrip of the lode between the two is quite one hundred and twenty feet, and then there is the width of the shot of gold, whatever that may be. Some opinions place it at sixty .or seventy feet. This seems to be indeed one patch of veritable golden country, the worth of which it seems to be idle to speculate upon. It is far more satisfactory to deal with plain facts, and in these I am not deficient. About 1\ ton of first-rate specimens have already been unearthed this week, and crushing them in the twe- stamp battery of the company's machine commenced this morning. The Bhow of amalgam that immediately followed was something to be marvelled at. Then the general stuff from the mine is shaping well, as was evidenced this morning, when 858oz of gold, obtained from the amalgam collected from the plates only, were lodged in the bank. I have no hesitation in estimating this week's yield at »B high a figure as that of last week, if indeed it does not exceed it,