LATE MINING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2250, 15 April 1897, Page 31

LATE MINING.

(Continued from Paric 10.)

I BALD HILL FLAT AND OLD MAN RANGE. I

(From Our Own CoRRnspoNDHNT.)

April 12. — A good deal of activity is being exhibited here in reefing matters at the present time, the two principal reefs looking very well. ' At White's reef some peven hands are employed raising quartz, and the live-head battery is kept going steadily one shift. This mine is being gradually opened up uta much lower level than it i had previously been worked, and all fresh woik ! points to improved permanency in the lode as ' depth is attained.

The New Zealand Minerals Comp.iny, who hold an option over the Excelsior mine, have some 10 men on developing it, w ith very satisfactory results. The reef has now been discovered payable for a distance of nearly lOGOf t on the sin face, baing sunk on in one place for a depth of (50ft. This is at least lOOyiis from any previous workings, the stone maintaining its splendid quality throughout. In the low level, although nothing of any consequence has been struck, brokeu blocks are found yielding at the rate of 3oz per ton, showing that the tirst chute struck will maintain its quality at a depth, the level not yet having reached a point where tliD first chute can be expected. '

Mining on the flat in the sluicing line has only beeu carried oh spasmodically tince C h'istmas, as the scarcity of water would not allow of anything like steady work. Some gold is being obtained by a few hardy spirits in the upper reaches of the Fraser River, but it would require a fair share of the metal to tempt most men to put in the past fortnight in that inhospitable region. i