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William Keating's Prospecting Claim, Upper Shotover. —26/11/04 : At the time of my visit a shaft had been sunk to a depth of 12 ft. on the side of the Sandhills Track, where it crosses the Blue Slip. Nothing of a permanent or profitable nature has been accomplished. Alpine Reef, Skipper's Point (Owners, W. L. Davies and J. Henderson). —An area of 20 acres is held by this party, but no work has been done on the property throughout the year. As is the case with other known gold-bearing reefs in the Skipper's District, want of capital hinders the immediate development of this reef. Glenorchy. A Greymouth syndicate sent out two prospectors —A. Macinroe and J. McKay—for a few months to prospect a reef at Mopoke Creek, Lake Wakatipu. Assays of the quartz did not come up to expectations, and the prospectors returned to Greymouth. George Reid, Queenstown, holds a prospecting-license over a large area in Caples Valley, Greenstone, Wakatipu District, over which prospecting operations are to be carried out. Macetown. Premier Sunrise (New Zealand) Gold-mining Company, Macetown (William Patton, Mine-manager). —9/11/04 : On this date operations at the mine were not very brisk and work was confined to driving the incline tunnel ahead and to stoping in the rise section. The mine was in good order generally while natural ventilation, assisted by the water blast, provided a suitable current of air in the working-faces. Timber was well used throughout the mine. The payable chute of stone has cut out in the dip, and the main dip is being pushed ahead in an effort to pick it up again. Privy accommodation for the men has been provided in a stope in the return airway. The manager, Mr. William Patton, reports as follows on the work done for the half-year ending the 31st December, 1904 : " Work in the mine has been carried on continuously during the half-year, the average number of men employed in the mine during that time was 11 "5, including miners' electrician and truckers. The operations consisted of extending the incline, mining, prospecting, and repairing. Incline : During the half-year the incline has been driven 66 ft., at a cost of £3 4s. 3d. per foot; the nature of the country passed through was mostly of a hard class, and was consequently expensive driving. The formation consisted of hard slate and a small vein of pug, which continues to follow the hanging-wall. There is no quartz of any kind in the face, we had an increase of water here lately, which has tended to delay the work to a certain extent. Mining : I regret to say that mining has only been carried on during the months of July, August, and September, between passes 35 and 37, where the reef gave out. There has been a great falling-off in the quality of the ore for at least six months previous to the reef cutting out, and the absence of pyrites and other minerals usually found in the stone was very noticeable. The reef was cut out by a fault which occurred in the formation, in the shape of a hard wall, which almost crossed the reef-line and cut out the reef. There has evidently been a great disturbance in the country here, as part of the vein was sometimes found to be underlying the wrong way between 35 and 37 passes. I hope the reef will soon be discovered, as the work of prospecting is very expensive owing to the class of country we have got to deal with. Prospecting : A considerable amount of prospecting-work has been carried out at 37 and 38 passes, and now at 39 pass. The No. 37 rise was carried up to a height (from the floor of the incline) of 62 ft. ; there was also a considerable amount of crosscutting carried out —principally into the foot-wall. A vein of stone was discovered which at first looked very promising, it being over 2 ft. in width and of good appearance, but only very poor prospects could be obtained. We therefore decided to discontinue for the present, the stone not being payable. No. 38 pass : Being of opinion that the reef might have taken a jump down here, we thought it advisable to drive a crosscut into the foot-wall on the incline level. A distance of 32 ft. was reached ; the reef formation was passed through, but no favourable indications being met with we decided to push on the incline and as soon as possible start No. 39 rise. No. 39 rise : This rise has now been carried up to a height above the floor of the incline of 17 ft., at which point a crosscut has been started for the purpose of again driving through the line of reef. This work we are now pushing ahead as fast as possible; a distance of about 15 ft. will require to be driven before the line of reef is reached, and will take at least two or three weeks to complete. I have hopes that we may discover the reef here, as we are now over 90 ft. ahead of where the reef cut out, and at least 150 ft. past where the payable gold gave out. Prospecting at No. 15 pass : A large amount of prospecting-work was carried out here; the gold-bearing tract of country was discovered, and the veins of stone met with were of fair quality in places, but not well defined, and on being driven on, cut out. Work was continued here until we were convinced that nothing payable was likely to be discovered, thus proving that the blank which occurred in the reef here was from 160 ft. to 200 ft. in length. Repairing incline : The incline has given us a considerable amount of trouble during the last six months, owing to the old timbers in places having become very much decayed and giving way. Consequently they had to be renewed. Only the most pressing work is being carried out just now, owing to the great expense attending it. We have got such a great extent of old tunneling to keep open that we find it very troublesome to attend to. If we were on payable stone, however, we would not notice it so much. I trust, however, that before long ore of a payable character will be discovered, and the mine will be in a paying position. The great depth to which the mine has reached is, of course, very much against us, as the stone will require to be of good quality to pay. Milling : During the half-year 358 tons of quartz has been crushed and 130 oz. of smelted gold has been obtained, valued at £520 (approximate). Owing-to no ore being obtained from the mine, the mill was not worked during the months of October, November, and December. Cyanide : Twenty-one tons of concentrates have been treated for a yield of 33 oz. 15 dwt. 10 gr. bullion, being at the rate of 1 oz. 11 dwt. per ton. Financial result. The financial position for the half-year has not been so good as usual, owing to the payable stone having pinched out, and, having no gold-returns, I was obliged to call upon the

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