The Miner.

Southern Cross, Volume 5, Issue 36, 11 December 1897, Page 7

The Miner.

(By Wanderer.)

WAtKIMO, UPPER THAMES. It was■ a day of delight when two chums and the Wanderer set out from Waitekauri to tramp through the bush to Waikiuo. The track was much rougher than the road, but vastly pleasanter. We could feast our eyes on many a noble kauri, and mourn the havoc that a devastating fire had made in the splendid kauri forest. We were Out for a Holiday, but yet I was intent on trying to get some copy to interest Southern Cross readers. We passed through several farms on our way, but the land seemed to beprolificonlyin growing weeds and bidee-bids. When we hove in sight of Waikino we stood to gaze on the grand building, or rather series of buildings, named The Victoria Battery, and to remark that, given gold, man is a very progressive animal. We inspected the buildings outside and in, but we could not detect any faults in them that we could criticise, but •we declared them to be the best we had seen yet built for the purpose of bullion extraction. As 1 kept my eyes open, and my tongue busy I will endeavour to give you as lucidly as I can a few facts that may convey an idea of what this great battery is like, but you really want to see it to grasp thoroughly the amount of money and work that have been expended on it. This is the outcome of the preparations made to treat the ore from The ‘ Martha,’ or, as she is better known out of the district, the Waihi. I will try to be as brief as I can in my description of this huge battery and works in connection therewith. A splendid line ot railway, suitable for a locomotive, has been laid from the mine at Waihi to the battery, a distance of six miles, and along this the quartz ■will be conveyed in side-tipping steel trucks, each holding tons of ore. The motive power used at the battery will be from two water races, high and low pressure, respectively. The high pressure race comes from Waitekauri, distant about six miles, and has 198 feet fall, and will carry 15 heads of water. This race will drive two Pelton wheels, each of 140 borse power. The low pressure race comes from the Ohinemnri river, has a fall of 65 feet and carries 60 heads of water; it will be used for driving two turbines of 200 and 100 horse power respectively, the water supply being divided by branch pipes leading to each turbine. These branch pipes are 4| feet and diminishing to 3| feet, and are fitted with equilibrium valves. An engine is to be used in summer should the water power fail. There are at present 100 head of stamps erected ; each stamper weighs l,ooolbs, and the whole are capable of crushing 120 tons of ore per diem. The broken ore is fed to the stampers by Challenge ore feeders, and after it is pounded into fine dust it is conveyed by conveyers, on the principle of the Archimedean screw, to the Cyanide Vats. The vat shed is a large iron building 270 feet by 113 feet, and is a very substantial structure. It contains 10 cyanide vats 50 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 4f feet deep, and each vat is capable of containing 120 tons of ore. The vats are built of concrete and finished with an outer layer of cement. The vat shed is distant from the stamper shed about 150 yards—this is for room to annex another 100 head of stamps to it in the sweet by and bye. The electric light plant, workshops, etc., will be located on the third floor of the battery. An important item in connection with the crushing is that, should anything go wrong, they can hang up five head of stamps at a time, so that is an improvement on the old method of having to hang up ten. The buildings are well supplied with light and room. As to the Treatment op the Orb,

it is conveyed from the railway line up an inclined tramway, and dumped into the kilns, six in number, each having a capacity for 500 tons. The inclined tramway will be worked by a winding engine. There are two drives from the kilns ; running along these will be cable tramways conveying the trucks with the roasted ore to the stone crushers, thence back again. The trucks will be switched off at the kilns by means of automatic clips, remain at the kilns till filled, then switched on again and back to the stone crusher, and so on. There are two stone crushers—a Ho. 5 Gates’ crusher and a Ho. 3 crusher. The Ho. 5 will chew the ore first then di-gorge it into the maw of Ho. 3, which will masticate it fit to go into the stamps ; these lively pieces of metal will show it no mercy till it escapes through the screens and into the conveyers. For, like the “Mills op God,” they pulverise pretty fine. The stone crushers will be worked, as will the conveying tramway, by a 12 h.p. engine. From the crushers the broken quartz will be conveyed by trucks to The Ore Bins erected on the top floor of the, battery and there discharged by a pin which, on being placed at whatever bin the ore is wanted, causes the bottom of the truck to open and empty its contents into that bin, thence the truck passes out of the mill, and round again to the crusher for another bellyfull. There are many out-buildings which I will not particularise, such as the smith’s shop, engineers, plumber’s, and carpenter’s shops, precipitating shed, assay room, store house, laboratory, engine shed, and offices. These buildings are dotted all over the grounds. How I think if you read this and study it you will have an idea of what the great Victoria battery of the Waihi mine is like. I do not ask you to inwardly digest, because figures do not agree with my own digestion ; but I trust the reading of this may interest your readers, as the gaining of the news interested me on the day I went to Waikino.