Scientific Mining.

Thames Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 7180, 10 May 1892, Page 4

Scientific Mining.

WOKE ON A LAEGE SCALE

ADVOCATED.

THE WAIHI COMPANY.

We clip the following article from the New Zealand Insurance, Mining, and Finance Journal (Danedin), which came to hand to-day :— "We have on a previous occasion re* ferred to tho cloud of ignorance on the scientific side of mining, which hangs like a pall over the goldfields of the colony. The time, has passed when tbe rustic miner could taka out gold in sufficient quantities to pay him handsome wages with a pump, a bucket, a cradle, and so forth. Gold mining has arrived at its second stage, and the resources of the colony have not hitherto been found sufficient to carry it successfully through the difficulties that beset its path. What is wanted now to give mining the impetus towards success is a co-mixture of capital and enterprise on a large scblo. The New Zealand raining speculator—the word should be investor—seems always to expect a return of hi 3 money withiu magically short times, and in quantities wfaiah suggest that the age of miracles lias not yet passed. That ho is almost invariably disappointed we all know, but it is worth looking a little farther to see what are the real causes why gold mining should be as it is—merely a synonym for disappointment. The riddle to be answered is, we think, this: Can a lode carrying some six or seven pennyweights only to the ton be made to pay in this part of tho world P The answer is, we believe, that this can and ought to be easily done, but only where there is sufficient capital employed and careful and diligent organisation in tho control of the works. It is not by acy raeaaa uncommon to find quartz mines carrying from four op to twenty pennyweights to the ton given up because they cannot be made to pay. Why cannot they be made to pay? The answer is easy: Because they are worked on too small a scale. And yet nothing is more certain than that a fairly constant reef, averaging some seven pennyweights to the ton. con be made to pny handsomely if worked on a proper scale and with reasonable care and management. What has been done in the Hidden Treasure mine in Colorado might well be done here. This is a mine which produces not more than seven penny weights, and much of that is done by smelting tho pyrites contained in the stone ; yet tho mine is and has been for a loDg time on the regular dividend payiue list. To obtain such results, however, it is necessary to employ capital in the first instance. It will not pay to employ less than 40 head of stampers. There must be no stoppages for want of water, and the same careful attention must ba paid to the organisation of labor which exists iv seme huge cotton factory or iron works at Home. The Waihi mine, ia the provincial district of Auckland, ia a remark' able instance at tho present time of the difference that in caused in gold mining by the application to the industry of skill anil ability, together with considerable capital. Tb6 Waihi was " busted" until EDglisb capital aad skill were applied to it. The Bine Spur Amalgamated was on tho down grade, and has been resuscitated only by the skill of the present manager. We venture to say that there tire scores of hundreds of acres of gold be&riog ground in New Zealand which have been given up or still remain untouched, but which would give a rich return if proper appliances and skill were at hand to develop them. The position is just this : that Govern' ment might be asked to step in and assist in creating complete chiorination works, so as to save tho many thousand pounds thrown away in the pyrites. As we have Baid aeaia and again, the greatest difficulty which stands in the way of the gold miDinp industry is the ignorance of gold miners and t,heir positive distaste of scientific- miniog." ::