WAITAHUNA MINING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1460, 8 November 1879, Page 10

WAITAHUNA MINING NOTES.

Mining at Waitahuna Gully (says the Tuapeka Times) is not going ahead so satisfactorily as we should desire to record. The Extended Company have been pushing on with their main drive up the steep slope of the reef, and are now within a few feet of their old workings. When they have reached that point they will have good air, which has been a great desideratum with them for some time back ; especially was it so during the few warm days at the beginning of this week, when work had to be carried on under great disadvantage. They expect to strike the old workings this week. They will then not only have an abundant supply of air, but good payable gold to recompense them for their protracted labours. They nave driven on to these old workings with great hops, as they knew, almost to a certainty, that they would reach the gold. It is the intention of this Company to dispense with the use of quicksilver, also the wells for catching the gold, and to substitute blanket-tables. They have been induced to adopt this course, as they found both the quicksilver and the gold were escaping. Quilter and Miscall are constantly at work with their Shamrock battery. They hare had a regular cleaning-up, and, we are informed, are well satisfied with the result. They are continuing their main drive towards the boundary of their claim. It is in about 220 feet, following the " pug," and is closely^ timbered all through. They purpese working the crossdrives and blocking out in two Bhiffcs. This company ara also dispensing with the use of quicksilver, and putting in blanket-tables. The Richmond Hill Company. — This Company had to suspend crushing operations oa Thursday week, as the turbine was not working smoothly, and some gear had to be got from Dunedin. Very little water is met with in the claim. The drives, of which there are three, are being worked by contract. Mr T. ¥. Morris (the manager) says they will be in full swing in the course of a week. The Somerset Company are in about 300 feet with their incline tunnel, but have not yet struck the " pug." They are now making a " jump-up," in the hopes of coming on the false bottom. Work is being carried on in two eight-hour shifts. The cement is drawn from the tunnel by horse-power. The City of Dublin are poshing on with their cross-drive 3, and following the washdirt with good prospects. After washing down the top boxes they were well satisfied with the yield of gold. They intend washing up the whole of the boxes in about five weeks' time.

(from our own correspondent.)

The three mills at work are substitutiug blanketing for the copper-plates, &c. , as from some substance in the cement the latter are found unsuitable. — Much has been done in prospecting at the Somerset Company's winze. — The Nelson and the John o' Groat Companies are still in abeyance. No fresh sinking on other leases is mentioned. — The whole of the cement leases^ are now being surveyed, as well as existing surface rights on them. Opinion is gaining that the cement found on the pug is sufficiently loose and friable to admit of the gold being extracted by sluicing it ; that the crushing process i 3 a waste of power, in that pebbles and flakes of stone are crushed only for the auriferous pasta which covers them ; or that an apparatus for abrading the stones and sifting out these coarser particles, and subjecting the sif tings to a sufficient crushing or bruising process, would be more adapted to the circumstances of the case, This would not apply to the harder cement. Such a process would seem to be applicable. The sluice breaks up the coarser parts of the compacted drift and earth, and it is a ready mode of working. But it is a question whether, in operating on gravels cemented and pasted with a tenacious coating of a hard substance such as iron compounds or the gummy blue coat of grit, it is sufficient to liberate the gold therein contained. This fact is well shown by reference to tlw analysis made of tailings from several claims at Waitahuna Gully not long since by the Awsis taut- Geologist at Wellington. Tuo gold, contained in such tailings, no doubt a

was in particles of such coating substance, which had freely passed through the boxes and over the ripples without being dissolved. The same escape of coated particles may take place at the crushing mills, considering the size of the grating necessarily used to admit of the greatest quantity of material being got through. I see no reason to doubt the ultimate extension of the profitable reduction of the extensive cement deposits other than what are known as the richer seams and beds restiisg on the " pug." But modes are yet to be determined by much thought and skilfui testing.

UPPER SHOTOVER.

(from our own oorbesponbent.)

As the result of a genial spring, mosit of the alluvial claims are in full swing ; the water supply, however, so far, has not been over-abundant. One or two claims have changed hands at fair prices; others are getting fresh claims into working order, with prospects, according to their own estimate, of £20 per week per man, and on the whole minors appear to be well satisfied. In quartz-reefs there is not much doing. The Phoanix manager has six men prospecting, and hopes are entertained of some good stone shortly. Southberg and Co. are crushing their winter's stone : what the result will be no one appears to be able to determine, as tihe quartz ia from a tunnel of the British American. Mr Thomas Hall's claim, which is situated on the same line of reef as the Nugget and Cornish, is beginning to sh ow signs of a start. Mr Hall is generally successful in the discovery of quartzreefs, and many believe it more than probable he will bring to light a good payable lode. The Nugget and Cornish are also commencing operations under the new proprietors — Bank of New Zealand. And here I may mention this district offers a legitimate scope for the spare cash of the capitalalist. I admit many have suffered through unscrupulous men; but to those who can discriminate between a bogus and a genuine, or bombast and honesty, there is scarcely a place in the Colony offering such means to the prospector ; and I shall yet prove the Shotover abounds in rich, quartz-reefs, and at this moment there are tons of gold lying in the river, which only requires a little capital to bring to the light of day.