MINING MATTERS.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1887, 10 August 1874, Page 3

MINING MATTERS.

Bright Smile.—Retorting for the Bright Smile Company took place on Saturday at three of the batteries employed crushing for the company, and a total result of 7140zs retorted gold was obtained. There will be a further lodgment to-day. The results from the various batteries are as follows:—The company's own battery, which has been steady working during the fortnight, produced 2060z5. At the Imperial Crown battery, where 25 head of stampers have been working for a fortnight, the yield was 3200z5; and at the Tararu battery, where the crushing has been irregular, but where on the whole about a fortnight's work with 20 head of stampers has been performed, the yield was 188ozs. There will be a retorting at the Manukau battery to-day, which will add about 150 to 170ozs more to the gross result. The company has made a new arrangement regarding _ crushing To-day's cleaning up will terminate their crushing at the Manukau battery, but they have engaged the full force of the Tararu battery (40 head), where hitherto they have only had 20 head employed, so that there is no decrease in the crushing force employed by the company, and they will have the advantage of not having their crushing scattered over so many mills as hitherto. Golden Obown.—Retorting for the Golden Crown took place on Saturday, and a yield of 59ozs 18dwts melted gold was the total result from about three weeks crushing of . stuff scraped up from the various workings of the mine. Crushing for this company has terminated in the meantime, and the manager is now carrying on prospecting works, endeavouring to open up some payable ground- Hitherto little success has been met with in the operations carried out on the section of the Manukau reef which underlies into this mine, although there is a very nice lode to hand which contain a large proportion of base minerals, but so far as it has been tried it has not hitherto proved payable in this company's mine. Nonpaheil..—Another section of the No. 1 reef, to which we alluded in Saturday morning's issue, was broken down on Saturday afternoon. There was again a fair general show of gold, butnospeoimens so rich as those taken out the day before. The lode from which this stuff has been taken, and which is now being sunk on, is from nine inches to a foot in width, but the manager is of opinion that only a portion of the lode is to hand, and that the remainder of it will be found further in the foot-wall side. Such is very likely to be the case. The reef has been much disturbed by the action of the slide beyond which it has now been recovered, and it has in all probability been split into two or more sections. So far the prospect is a very promising one, particularly as this section of the mine is entirely unprospectcd, Loyalti.—Crushing for the Loyalty commenced this morning at the Una battery with a force of 10 head of stampers. There is not a very largo quantity of stone to hand at the present, but the manager's intention was not to start crushing until there was 100 tons on hand. By that time tho mine would be opened up, and in all likelihood a force of ten head of stampers could have been kepi going. But the directors have overruled this intention, and the stuff on hand is therefore to be crushed immediately, in order to test its quality and to clear the quartz paddock, which requires .alterations and enlargement. Before the mine came into the possession of the present owners, good rich results were obtained from tho only two crushings taken out ot that reef, and tho prospects at present appears to be quite us good as they were then. A considerable amount of work had to be done in opening the drives and getting the claim into working order before any stone could be broken out lor crushing. Queen of Beauty.—lnstead of increasing their crushing power, as was intended, last week, this company is about to make a reduction by knocking off 10 head at the Kuranui battery, and discontinuing altogether at the Manukau. Vv'ith this reduction of 20 head of stampers there will still be a very large crushing force of 63 head of stampers at work on stuff from this mine. The reduotion has hot been made because of any falling off in the supply of crushing stuff, but there i 3 a scarcity of carters, and the roads are so bad that a difficulty has been experienced in keeping the mills fully employed. The shareholders intend, when tho tramway which is now being laid through Campbell and Pollent )KQts is finished, to mmp crushing oil

the same large scale which they have recently carried on with. Bed White and Blue Tbibute.-A crushing of 42 tons has been completed at tho Manukau battery for Mr hkidmore, tribuler of No. 1 section of the Ked White and Blue mine. The yield was a very moderate one, only amounting to Bozs sdwts of melted gold. This yield 18 tue pnly one resulting from a crushing from this section of the mine for several years past which has not yielded a payable average. JusMv.TuiE.—This Action of ground on the Karaka Creek, which is occupied by Mr Greenville, is a portion of that formerly held by the Lord Nelson Company, for some time operations have been carried ou with a moderate amount of success, but there was a great difficulty in getting quartz to the mill which belongs to this mine; but the Government are now erecting a wire tramway there, which will perform this work admirably. The wire rope, trucks, and gear have been removed from another part of the field and were, on Saturday, at the foot of the Karaka tramway, ready for sending to the site where it is to be erected. Meanwhile Mr Greenville and his men are making a deep cutting for the tramway, and the whole is expected to bo in good working, order in the course of a fortnight. The battery of 6 head of stampers belonging to this claim is in good working ordor, and the mine is so opened up that there will be no difficulty in taking out 40 tons per week, the amount which the battery is capable of crushing. The stuff hitherto crushed has averaged an ounce to the ton, which, in the face of the difficulty of transit, was a good payable yield (for the battery is driven by water power), but with increased facilities for forwarding the quartz cheaply there will be a much larger margin of profit from similar averages in future. There are two good lodes opened up for working one of which is three feet thick, and the other from a foot to 18 indies. Both have been well tested and fonnd payable. Old WHUT.-Boyond the discovery to which we alluded in Saturday's issue there is nothing fresh to report from this mine, and even as regards the new discovery there is little to add to what we have already written. No more stone has been broken down, but the drive has been carried in some distance on the footwall side of the lode, stripping it to within about three or four feet of the Old Whau boundary. The lode is in a splendid channel of country. What has hitherto been carried in as the hang-ing-wall does not appear to be the true wall, although in consequence of a clay seam the reef stuff strips off from it very clean, but by picking into this for a short distance it can be seen that there is quartz through the country, and the true wall is at least 15 inches back from the present one; this is at the right-hand.side of the drive. A shot put in on Saturday showed quartz coming in at the left-hand side, and a fine looking seam 6 iuohes thick was opened up at the time we visited the mino. It did not show gold, nor indeed was there any showing in the main reef at the time, but it was of a fine friable discripiion; Prom an examination of the working plans of this mine and the Alburnia, we find that the spot at which gold was struck on Friday night was vertically under the point at which the right-hand branch lode junctioned with the hanging-wall reef overhead. The 6-inch vein, to which we have alluded, doubtless has had something to do with the gold find, for although its existence was not known when the gold was met with, the junction was actually to hand; and in all probability this vein is the right hand branoh, or is at all events closely connected with it. The main reef is at present lying very flat, its underlie being nearly one foot in one. It still appears to be maintaining its new course. During this week the manager will start the new rise, which will then be carried up to' the present working level on the junction of the reefs.