46

C—3

Bullion. —This mine has been steadily worked by C. Manuel and party (tributers), who have confined their operations chiefly to stoping out a block of ground that was opened up on the Sheridan reef over the back of the low level. This is nearly exhausted, and before much more can be done it will be necessary to extend the drives on the reef to open up fresh blocks and ascertain its value. This is hard to do, as the ground is of a very patchy nature. The tributers crushed 119 tons of quartz for 407 oz. of gold ; value, £1,190 9s. 6d. An average of seven men were employed. Black Sican. —In this claim work has been carried on by C. Kelly and his mate, who have done a considerable amount of work in opening up and prospecting on several leaders that are striking through their claim, varying from 1 in. to 4 in. in'thickness, from which 10 tons of quartz has been treated for 11 oz. 10 dwt. of gold. Two men are employed. The Bendigo, Diehard, and Panama Route have each had two and three men employed on the claims, operations being directed to prospecting on the various leaders that are known to exist in this locality. Waiomo. Monowai Mine. —Work in this mine has been vigorously proceeded with, and a fair amount of success has resulted. The place where most of the quartz has been obtained recently is over the back of No. 3 level, the reef here being from Bft. to 14 ft. thick, and when last inspected stopes were being carried along for about 70 ft. in length and were up about 60 ft. above the level. The whole of the reef was taken out except about 2 ft. of the foot-wall portion. About the same thickness on the hanging-wall side was saved for treatment; this contains a considerable amount of heavily mineralised ore, including gold and silver, but of a very refractory character, and the great difficulty has been to get a suitable process for extracting the precious metals. lam informed this has been got over by the company crushing the ore at their own battery and concentrating the same on the Frue vanners, then shipping the concentrates to New South Wales for treatment. The results obtained have been very satisfactory. 1,439 tons of quartz has been treated for £1,830 16s. 3d. (or £1 ss. 5Jd. per ton). This cannot be considered rich ore, but a better extraction has been obtained by the process mentioned than any hitherto tried on the quartz from this mine. Broken Hills.— This company's property was protected for a time, and when the protection expired two men were put on, and are now engaged in driving a low level with the object of intersecting the Monowai reef. Hector McDonald.— -This is a claim lately taken up by Lowrie Brothers, who found rich surface-prospects and a mullocky reef, from which they crushed 8 tons of ore for 6 oz. 8 dwt. of gold; value, £19 4s. Two men are employed. Considerable attention has of late been directed to the Waiomo and Puru Creeks, where large mineral lodes are known to exist, and a number of new claims have been taken up with the object of ascertaining if the concentration process will prove suitable for the extraction of gold and silver from those ores. Puru. Puru Consolidated. —The company have only done a limited amount of work in this mine for some time past. The ground was worked for a short time by tributers, but not being successful in discovering a payable chute of ore they gave it up, and the company have two men employed prospecting the different reefs that are carrying a little gold. So far no ore of sufficient value has been discovered to warrant sending it to the battery for treatment. Puru Big Reefs.— This property has been recently taken up by a syndicate, who are opening up and testing the. reefs along the outcrop on the eastern side of the Puru Stream. Some work was done on this property during the boom, but it was given up, as the assays made and value obtained were not sufficient to warrant a large sum of money being expended in opening up the reefs. However, the present syndicate are determined to give it a fair trial, and have sent samples of the ore from the big reef to New South Wales to be treated similarly to the Monowai concentrates, and the results obtained are said to be exceedingly encouraging. Three men are employed. Tararu Creek. Eclipse (Limited).— Operations in this company's mine have been vigorously carried on in driving and stoping on the No. 1 and cross reefs over the back of the main level, driven from the bottom of the shaft at a depth of 150 ft. The No. 1 reef is a large body of stone about 6 ft. in width, but is not what may be considered high-grade ore. It has been driven on for some hundreds of feet, thereby opening up a large block of ground which is now available for stoping. The crossreef—on which a very large amount of driving and stoping has been done—is apparently of better quality, and averages 3 ft. 6 in. in width. 1,334 tons of quartz has been treated at the company's battery'for a return of 9350z. Bdwt. of gold; value, £2,666 ss. 4d. Twenty-four men have been employed. Chicago. —There has been very little work done in this mine for some time past, and no returns of gold have been received. Iron Cap Mine.— Prospecting-works have been carried on in this mine, two and sometimes three men being employed in driving on the No. 1 reef, which has varied from 4 in. to 16 in. in thickness. Occasionally a little gold is seen in the stone, but so far no rich chute of ore has been met with, although most of the quartz broken out is saved for treatment. No returns have been received. Tararu Creek Mine. —Operations in this company's mine have been steadily carried on, the work being chiefly confined to driving, rising, and stoping on the reef over the battery-level. The reaf has varied from 4 ft. to 20 ft. in size. During the period under review 11,096 tons of quartz