WAITAHUNA COPPER MINE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XIV, Issue 732, 30 April 1881, Page 3

WAITAHUNA COPPER MINE.

We make the following extracte from an excellent contribution appearing on the above subject in yesterday's "Bruce Herald":— After describing the journey to the Coppermine, the correspondent proceeds No one could mistake the nature of the operations being carried on, as it was copper everywhere in all directions, strewed about apparently in the most careless manner. H uge blocks of yellow ore lying on the side of the hill, and in the creek damming the water back, and shining like gold. They have actually used copper ore to build up their staging round the mouth of one of the shafts. I curiously asked the manager if he did not think it would be profitable to gather it up. Yes, was the answer, when they want it, it can't run away, and it is just as safe in one place as in another. Of course he was right. We came on No. 1 shaft, the mouth of which is about 30 feet above the creek, and the bottom from which there are two tunnels, is several feet below the level of the creek. I may state that the main branch of the Waitahuna river runs in the immediate vicinity of the workings. It is known as Reedy Creek. No. 1 shaft, we were told, was the first prospecting shaft put down in search of the lode, and they % were nearly five* months working with two and three shafts before the main lode was

After sinking 40 feefc through very

hard rock, and finding nothing ejjpepfcing that the water coming into the shaft was strongly copperised, and made all the tools green, a drive was commenced nearly due north, but after driving some time and finding no indications, a start was made at the same level to drive due south. They had not gone many feet when the indication became so strong that the existence of. a lode was no longer a matter of

doubt. In a few days, the electric spark flashed the exciting but welcome news to the proprietors in Dunedin, that a lode of good yellow ore four feet thick had been I exposed to view lying between welldefined walls of grey schist. The services of a first-class mining engineer were then secured, and plans decided on for opening the lode. We were shown a plan and sketch of the lode in its various bearings, and the engineer's report, some forty pages of foolscap, containing suggestions for the opening of the lode, some of which have been given effect to. Once the true position of the fissure was known, it was an easy matter for the manager to commence sinking or driving in the most convenient places with a certainty of coming on the lode at a given point. Consequently, shaft No. 2 was opened, and at less than four feet sinking the yellow ore appeared. From this shaft fifty bags of ore were taken out to be tested. Some distance down the creek following the dip of the lode, we came on shaft No. 3. On account of the natural underlie of the lode, this shaft goes to a lower level than either of the others. Where the lode was pierced in this shaft is some 60 or 70 feet below the level of the surface at No. 1 shaft. No 3 shaft is, and will be for a long time, the main shaft, as the great body of ore now opened can be worked economically from that level. I was surprised to see so much work d-ne. There are four tunnels or drives in four different directions, leading from this sbaft, one north on the rise of the locb, one south on the dip of the lode, and one respectively east or west, on the strike or trade of the lode, and from these tunnels the principal part of the ore, some ten tons sent to the Sydney smelting works, was taken. When this shaft pierced the lode, it was about four feet thick. To ascertain the value of the lode at a still greater depth, and to ascertain the nature of the rocks, and the best place for sinking another shaft, a bore hole is now being put down, the Company having procured a set of | boring rods, and engaged a practical borer. At the time of my visit, the rods had reached a depth of 40 feet, and required three men to work them.