MINING MATTERS.

Thames Advertiser, Volume IX, Issue 2466, 9 November 1876, Page 3

MINING MATTERS.

BockT:PoiNT.-McQuillan and party, shareholders of the Eocky Point claim, laraka, finished up a small crushing yesterday, for a, return of loz 13dwts melted.gold, Aibuehxa Tbibute.—B owe and party, tributers of the Alburnia . mine, lodged 4ozs lOdwts retorted gold in the Bank of flew Zealand, as the result of a small crushing completed for, them during the day at the Moanataiari battery. PiAKO.-rWe are glad to .find that the improvement in the quality of the stuff from this company's ; mine, alluded to in yesterday's issue, still continues, and there isrio doubt but that the stuff which is /now going through /the mill'is of payable'qualityji although;;it is still far from: i bieing' , 'hifih[j grade j;ore, Stoping operations are now being actively pushed: aWd at th'o.mine, and,there is an ample, output of quartz to' keep 20 head of stampers fully employed, and probably when the opening up works are more fully advanced 1 the' manager may find himself in a position to employ 10 head more. At present ; the-prospects of the main' level are' favourable,/ and in the meantime the main shaft is being pushed down as speedilv as possible. It is now down 'about 56 feet/below the present level, pd it .is calculated that within a month it will have reached a depth sufficient to allow of a new level witii 70 feet of backs being opened up. "Welcome (Waitekauri).-In his report to the directors dated the 6th inst., Mr Goldsworthy, manager of the Welcome 'mine, Waitekauri, reports that the contractors'in No. 2 main cross-cut had driven a total distance of 48 feel, but for the last 15 feet the ground had been harder and intermixed with quartz veins. They had thrown up the contract, but lie continued the drive with two wages men, as he believed a change would occur when this belt was cut through. The contractors driving on the main reef of No. 2 level had made 15 feet during the fortnight; The ireef was then a foot thick, and rather broken, but the ground is of a nice looking dark blue, and. is. very heavily charged with mundic. He had great hopes of the reef improving in size and quality, as there 'was a good stream of water issuing from the face. The wages men had been chiefly employed during the fortnight in timbering up where_ required and cutting timber for the main drive, and hero at present driving on the No. 2 cross-lode, In the No. 1 level this oiosslodais a foot thick and shows gold. The trial of 16 tons from the top paddook yielded llozs:l9dwts; • and there still remained about 100 tons in this paddock. Caledonian—There is, so far, little encouraging - to' report from the Caledonian mine. In fact, there is little work going on on behalf of the company, whose operations are confined to the sinking of a winze on the No. 6 reef at the far end of the mine. The manager is perfectly satisfied that the present levels of the Caledonian mine are exhausted, and that there is nothing further in them to be profitably worked. The chief object therefore at present is to open up the Otago mine, where there is a chance that some payable runs of gold may be discovered, In the low levels there has been comparatively little work done in the . way _ of prospecting or opening up this section of the company's mine, and it is highly probable that some of the runs of gold which were formerly worked by to Otago Company maybe found to carry gold downwards, or that some of the new reefs, the Nos. 4, 5, and 6 lodes, may "produce payable returns. , Queen or Beauty—Crushing for the Queen of Beauty Company at the Piako Battery has been fairly started with a force of 10 head of stampers, and this force it is intended [to keep permanently employed, and to augment it as opportunitv offers. > In. the meantime the company's own mill is crushing away as usual, arid it is satisfactory to-notice that the stuff is shapicg as satisfactorily as it did during the last fortnight. The sinking of - the shaft is also progressing,, but recently the stuff has been a little harder than before, and the contractors therefore did hot complete their job as speedily as was thought. There only remains, however, a few feet further to sink in order to reach the level required for opening out anew and developing fresh blocks of. the reef. . -