C—B

74

Dredges Building — Southland. At Waikaka. —Waikaka United No. 2, Paterson's Freehold No. 2, Celtic, She.ddon's Freehold, Waikaka, Waikaka Junction. On the Mataura River. —At Gore: Graham's (private). At Waimumu. —.Victoria Waimumu, Waimumu Treasure, Waimumu Imperial (late Dunedin), Boyal Waimumu, Spec Gully (late of Spec Gully). At Charlton. —MacCharlton, Charlton Valley. At Waikaia —Garvey Burn, Day Dawn, Switzers. Dredges under Removal. Bengerburn : Moa Flat to Greenvale. Klondike : Matakanui to West Coast. Woolshed : Glenore to Waipori. Eureka : Mataura to Mataura Island. Dredges Standing. Alpine, Cromwell (sunk) ; Springvale, Manuherikia Biver; Nil Desperandum, Manuherikia Biver, at Chatto Creek; Junction-Electric No. 1, Cromwell, on Kawarau Biver ; Shotover, at Lower Shotover ; Boiling Stone, at Cardrona; First Taieri, Taieri Biver; Nugget, Waikaia ; Great Western, Colac Bay ; Adams's, at Tuapeka Mouth. Summary of Dredges in Southern Mining District. Working— 31st Mar., 1901. 31st Mar., 1900. In Otago ... ... ... ... ... 99 67 In Southland ... ... ... ... ... 26 12 Total ... 125 79 Building— — In Otago ... ... ... ... ... 84 In Southland ... ... ... ... ... 17 Total ... ... ... ... 101 Dredges standing ... ... ... ... 10 Dredges undergoing removal in Otago ... ... 3 Dredges undergoing removal to West Coast ... ... 1 Total ... ... ... ... 14 Total for Otago and Southland, 240. Increase of working dredges, 46. A large number of the dredges building will soon be completed and at work. The above returns are made up to the 31st March, 1901. OTHER MINERALS. Scheelite. The demand for scheelite, and the known occurrence of the mineral, associated with gold-bear-ing quartz, in the Mount Highlay line of reef at Macrae's, caused some attention to be paid to hitherto untried outcrops. The success of Messrs. W. and G. Donaldson at Golden Point, Macrae's, stimulated others to take up areas supposed to be scheelite-bearing. Messrs. Phelan and party at Macrae's and Dunback Hill, and Cockerill and party at Mount Highlay, have prospected several areas, but the results have not been made public. Macrae's. —The reef (Mount Highlay line) to east and near the main road has been exposed at several places where scheelite is showing in the stone. Dunback Hill. —The outcrop of a small reef 28 in. to 30 in. in thickness can be traced for half a mile or more on the surface. At one point the reef is exposed for about 70 ft. on the line of strike, and can be seen dipping to the north about lin 10. Some twenty trial trenches and openings have been made, and the stone can been seen carrying scheelite. Assays are said to have proved the stone to carry sufficient gold to pay working expenses. Antimony. Alexandra. —Mr. Blair (from the Thames) has done some prospecting on the west bank of the Clutha Biver, a few hundred, yards above the traffic bridge, where a few tons of antimony were taken out some years ago. The old shaft has been cleaned out and a few tons brought to grass, and sent to Melbourne for smelting, with a view to ascertaining the market value of the ore. The line of reef is being followed up, and has been traced for about 400 yards on the surface. Being in the preliminary stage, no estimate can as yet be formed of the depth or body of the ore, but indications are favourable. Owing to the distance from the railways, the cost of landing the ore at Dunedin, the nearest seaport town, will be considerable. [Extract from the New Zealand Mining and Engineering Journal, Thursday, 14th March, 1901.] " Some samples of antimony-ore taken from the shaft just put down at the Alexandra Antimony Syndicate's mine were sent for analysis to the Otago and Thames School of Mines, and also to Dr. Maclaurin, Government Analyst. The results were (says the Alexandra Herald) in every case very satisfactory. The Government Analyst reported that the ore submitted to him contained 735 sulphide of antimony, equal to 52-8 per cent, of metallic antimony. The Thames School of Mines reported that the sample contained 69-7 antimony-sulphide, 5-2 iron-pyrites, and