MISCELLANEOUS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1934, 19 March 1891, Page 13

MISCELLANEOUS.

The secretary to the Frankton Beach Dredging Company (Limited) reports having reoelved a telegram from the company's dredgem'aster (Mr Ford) to the following effect :—" Forty ounces amalgam. Four days' work." The manager of the Sandhills Company's dredge telegraphs that he £>as obtained 40oz gold for five days' dredging. Mr Jabez Burton, secretary of tbe United Hercules Company, telegraphs that the remit of washing up on Saturday was 116oz of gold, value £449. The Upper Waipori Alluvial Gold Dredging Company obtained 540z lldwfc 6gr of gold for five days' dredging last week. - The Fair Maid Gold Mining Company (Westport> report, for the week ending 11th inst., that 59 hours' sluicing yielded lOOoz of amalgam. Our Arrowtown correspondent telegraphs that the Sunrise Lease Company (Advance Peak, Macetown) sent down on Saturday night a cake weighing 183oz of retorted gold, being the product of 147 tons of stone. A telegram from tbe Wakamarina mine, Marlborough, states that four days' washing of the top stuff has produoed about 3oz. The men are 16ft down in the shingle, but bo bottom has been reached yet. Through a typographical error it was made to appear ia last week's issue that Mr Davey was instructed to design a dredge for the Golden Bar Company. The name of the company should be the Golden Hun Dredging Company, which holds a claim, near the Island Blook claim, between Lawrence and Roxburgh. The Cromwell Argus hears that a gold bearing reef has been found at Griffel. A specimen of the antimony ore taken out of Messrs Pryde, Horn, and M'Kenzie's olaim near Alexandra seems likely stuff, and is reckoned to carry 50 per cent, of antimony. The party, who hold an area of 40 acres, are at present testing the lode, and are very hopeful of the results. A Westporb telegram states that quartz specimens, showing gold freely throughout, have been obtained in the Beaconsfield mine. The reef is 18in wide at the bottom of the winze. A Waipori eorreßpondent of the Tuapeka Times writes last week :— •' The Deep Lead Company were at a standstill when I visited the mine on Monday. The cause of the temporary suspension of operations, the manager informed me, was his inability to carry on without a new liner, whioh bad been'ordered, the old one being evidently defective in the casting, judging by the work done. I had a look at the gold In the tin dish that had been washed on Monday, the result of 136 hours' sluicing, and, judging roughly from appearances, I should say there were fully 250z of gold in the lot. The manager told me he had been waiting for a joint to connect the ejector pump for the last three weeks. He had sent wire after wire to the office in Dunedin inquiring about tbe [delay, and only received a reply on the day of my visit. He was informed that tbe joint had been duly forwarded some 10 days previously ; but, strange to say, they had sent him no advice note. These delays are 'ruinous to tbe interests of the company, and cause no end of annoyance and vexation of spirit to the manager, on whom, after all, tbe whole of the responsibility rests. Let him who likes blunder, he has to supply the dividends ; at all events the shareholders look to him, and if their expectations are not realised depend upon it the bulk of their querulous interrogatories are addressed to the hapless manager. The water supply at the mine has been good during the showery weather. But the rainy weather will not always last, and tbe resolve of the company to carry on operations profitably without providing means for tbe storage of the storm water is, in my opinion, a very great mistake, as the future will fully prove. This is a matter, if the company regard their own interests, that should be taken into consideration, and the sooner the better. — Messrs M'Lean and Thompson have had a. trial crushing of about 50 tons of stone at Mr Green's battery, adjoining the Lammerlaw creek. The result, whioh amounted to 50oz of retorted gold, may be regarded as highly satisfactory, and confirms the favourable opinion generally entertained of the claim. Since then Mr Thompson has sold out to Mr George Ellis for a good round sum, and I believe the purchaser will have no reason to regret his bargain. Mr A. Trestail, I understand, is engaged driving a tunnel for the party through the reef at a lower level, which, when completed, will supply them with plenty of backs to work upon. — Messrs Baton Brothers have made a start again to work on their old claim at Mitchell's Flat. I hear that they have traced the lead they previously worked from the surface down to a depth of 30ft. Strange to say, they have again followed it up to the eurfaoe on the opposite side of the reef. The gold is a coarse, nuggety samole. — I noticed that the first waggon load of timber for the Upper Waipori Alluvial Gold Mining Company's second dredge reached the claim on Monday. The hull of the dredge is to be of timber— on the same lines as the Jutland Flat Gold Mining Company's dredge.— The contractor for the building of the hull of the Jutland Flat Company's dredge is now busy painting it prior to launching." The Dunatan Times says that work is now progressing on an antimony lode at Alexandra, and we are informed that the samples of ore obtained have every appearance of being payable. Messrs Pryde, Horn, aud M'Kerzle (of Bannockburn) are tbe holders, and they have our best wishes for the sucoess of their venture. Among the applications lodged at the warden's office is one from the Bound Hill syndicate for a witter race 30 miles in length, to commence in the Purakino river and terminating at the syndicate's special claim. The race is to bo 6ft by 6ft, and eipable of carrying 50 Government heads of water. The estimated cost io £6000. The intention of the syndicate is to provide additional water for the miners bo that a large area of new ground can be opened up.— Western Star. With teference to the cabl9grnm stating there Is at present a demand for wolfram, a contributor to the Ohristchurch Press says:— "The recent inquiry from Germany as to the presence of wolfram in Australasia is not the first inqu'ry v,e have had for ores of the cbroniura gronp. K>unp. the great gunmaker, has offered high prices tor echeelite, which is ' the nearest' relative to wolfram, and both echeolite iind wolfram (ire used in the manufacture of gun metal. Wolfram io a v<*ry heavy brownish black mineral, of n dull, m*M»llic appearance, aud prospectors can readily distinguish it by simple tests. Xlia colour of the powder and atreak obtained by scratching the mineral on a piece of unglaj;ed porce- i

lain is brown to blaok. The ore Is sometimes slightly magnetic. Hardness 6 to 5*5, specific gravity 7to 7*5. Before the blowpipe itf uses easily to a magnetic globule. With carbonate of soda and sa'tpetre on platinum in the oxidising flame of the blowpipe it fusel to ft bead which is green when hot and greenish-blue when cold. Wolfram finely powdered is dissolved by long digestion In warm aqua. The solution contains chlorides of iron and mnganese, and yields a yellow residue of tungstio acid. Bcheellte is the tungstate of lime, containing about 80 per oent; of tungstio oxide, found in many parts of New Zealand, but principally on the west coast of this island and in Central Otago. Wolfram is the doable tungstate of manganese and iron, and contains about 76 per cent, of tungstate oxide. Both soheellte and wolfram are associated with tin ores, bismuth, and the sulphides of lead, zinc, and iron, and also with gold. Scheelite is 'found usually in granite, syenite, and the metamorphio Bohlsts. There Is no account of wolfram being found In large quantities In New Zealand, but as it is so Intimately related to scheelite, and scheelite is well known in this country, there is reason to suppose deposits may odour, and miners may see in the inquiry from Germany a chance to obtain profit from other minerals than gold."