MINING MATTERS.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VIII, Issue 2199, 15 November 1875, Page 3

MINING MATTERS.

• Little Lizzie,—The shareholders of the Little Lizzie claim, Karaka, crushed a parcel of 451bs of stone at their own berdans on Saturday, andobtained 20ozs j ]9dwts lOgrs of melted gold as the result. This party will soon be in a position to resume more extensive crushings. For some time past their leader has been rather broken, but they have succeeded in re-opening it in a new place in better ground, where the prospects are as good as ever they have been. Martin Claim.— This is a claim of two men's ground, adjoining the Little lizzie, recently taken up for the .purpose of opening up the continuation of the rich lodes of the latter. The shareholders have just succeeded in opening one' of those leaders, and from a small lot of 121bs which they crushed on Saturday at the Little Lizzie berdan they obtained 2ozs 2dwts melted gold. This is their first crushing, and it holds out promising prospects. Bed White and Blue Tbibute.-A parcel of 9 tons has been crushed at the Moanataiari battery for Campbell and party, tributers of the Bed White and Blue. It was a trial parcel, but it did not prove payable, the yield being only 2oza 12dwts 6grs of melted gold. Only Chance,—The shareholders of the Only Chance claim, Te-Papa Gully, have had a.parcel of 1121bs of stuff selected from a reef 3 feet wide, crushed for them at the Coulabah battery, Karaka, from which they obtained a handsome return of 15ozs lOdwts retorted gold. . Albion.—Betorting ior. the Albion Company took place on Saturday, after a considerable delay in finishing, up the crushing/and a return of lOoozs 18dwts was obtained as the result of 95 tons of stuff crushed. And yet, in the face of such a payable result as this, the directors have stopped operations in the mine, although it is well known that the stuff crushed during the early part of the month was of such a low grade a3 to be barely payable, and latterly such an improvement had set in as to compensate

for the inferiority' of nearly three parts of. the crushing. There is nothing to prevent operations from being usefully continued, for the Young American reef, from which this crushing was chiefly obtained, showed as good prospects at the closo of operations, as it has done for many months past, andi under the ciroumstances, it seems to: us to be unwise policy to stop operations while remunerative returns oould be obtained, leaving the matter of throwing a number of men eut of employment out of the question. Caledonian.—Operations on the Cure or No: 5 reef, are progressing in the stopes, from which a nice parcel of 251bs of specimens, some of which were very good, came to hand from those stopes. Gold also shows regularly in the cross reef. This .morning a winzo will be started on the No. 5 reef, on the shot of gold which was worked ia the level, and is now being worked in the stopes, and in all probability it will be carried down to the No. 2 level, as has been done in the Cure mine. Crushing for the company is still progressing, but no cleaning up or retorting has taken place for some time past, not, in fact, since'the start of the present crushing. Queen of Beauty.—Betorting for the Queen of Beauty took place on Saturday, after the usual fortnight's run, with 20 head of stampers, and the yield was even better than that obtained, for the preceding fortnight's operations. It amounted to 418ozs lOdwts, Wo are glad to learn that the prospects for the ensuing fortnight are equally rich, and that there is still a large quantity of orushing stuff available in these upper levels.. The crushing just completed will pay the shareholders anothoi handsome dividend of about £80 per share. Last Change.—This claim, one of the numerous "ohances" located on the Te Papa Gully, is boing worked on tribute by two parties. Small crushings for each of those were completed at the Prince Alfred battery on Saturday. Tho first was a &ton lot for Neil and party, which yielded 4ozs. ldwfc gold, and the second was a similar quantity for Brown and party, which produced 2ozs 16d,wts. In both instances the results were encouraging., Una.—As our readers are aware, crushing for the Una Company has now been going on for some time on stuff derived from the tunnel which had accumulated on hand, and an interim retorting took place on Saturday after 90 tons had been put through. The stuff did hot give much promise of a rich yield, but the return is ' certainly. below expectations, amounting only to 28ozs goM. INo doubt when tho runs of gold are fairly opened, as theyshould be before long, there will be better returns, but up to the present the crushings from the low level can hardly be accepted as a criterion of the quality of the reef. Oity of London.—The current_ fortnight's crushing for this company is, we learn, showing up for quite as rich a yield as the brilliant return obtained last Saturday week, out of which a dividend of 7s 6d per share was paid. There is'no deterioration, so far as can be observed, from the daily takings of amalgam from the plates. But tho water is gradually rising, and expedition' will have to bo used to get the whole of the small block of the cross-reef, opened from tho intermediate level, worked out before the water rises to that level. - Meanwhile the drive to intersect the No. 1 reef is being pushed ahead, but the lode is not yet to hand, so that except in the evidence of its richness Bhown by the result of a crushing obtained from it in the. low level, there is nothing to show how the lode is likely to turn out in the present level. The No. 3 reef is improving in quality, and looks _as if another junction would be met with shortly, and the No. 4 reef also shows gold occasionally. Moanataiaui.—The prospects of this company have undergone a very considerable improvement during the past week, and this will be shown in the result of the retorting, which will take place on Saturday next. Operations on Heldt's reef are progressing favourably, but the richest portion of the reef has not yet been reached in the stopes, so that it is not this. lode which is causing the improvemen'treferred to. It will be recollected that; some time, ago the manager started and drovo a cross-cut through the old stopes worked by Captain Higgins at the 70-feet level, with the view of picking up some blocks of.the No. 1 reef, and other lodes which existed there. He has been successful in getting into the No. 2 reef, of which there is a very large block intact, and here a good show of gold has been met with. It was from the No. 1 reef that Captain Higgins obtained those brilliant yields, which paid such handsome dividends, and this gold which the present manager has now opened is evidently a parallel run in the No. 2 reef. The lower block of the No. 2 reef, that which has been opened from the winze under the tunnel level, is also yielding good payable stuff.