MANAGEMENT OF QUARTZ REEFS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 138, 2 July 1872, Page 6

MANAGEMENT OF QUARTZ REEFS.

To the Editor of the Cromwell A p.gus,

Sir,— I will now give you my idea as to how a Company ought to proceed. Having obtained a first-class directory, and sufficient capital, they should make up their minds 'to pay calls instead of receiving dividends, until such time as the ground is properly tested, and all the preparatory work done. They should not attempt to put up expensive machinery without a sufficient prospect; hut having obtained that prospect, they should expend the cash on all work necessary for the profitable working of the mine ungrudgingly, and not fritter away their capital bit by bit. You will perceive my meaning when you recollect the way in which many companies have started, not only in this district, but various other places. On becoming the proprietors of a claim, with perhaps first-rate surface prospects, they have recklessly put on a large number of men, erected expensive machinery, and expected the manager to make the mine pay handsome dividends at once, without a shaft being sunk or a tunnel driven, and the mine, in fact, not only unprepared for profitable working, but actually unprospected ; so that they had no knowledge of what the reef was like at anything like a depth, or even whether it continued along the surface for any distance. In my opinion, a better plan to adopt would have been to put on a few men, on whose truth and judgment they could depend, to prospect the reef thoroughly to a reasonable depth : if the reef runs out, cross cut, or sink deeper, as appears most advisable; if the reef continues, but the gold fails, drive along it ; in short, try it reasonably well; and, if a sufficiently good prospect is not obtained to justify the outlay of capital in the necessary shafts, tunnels, and machinery for the proper working of the reef, abandon it. The first loss in this case is the best, and, in addition to the original purchase money, is but trifling. If, on the contrary, they consider it can be made to ! pay, they should immediately get all the dead work done, never attempting to get an ounce | of gold until such can be obtained at the least possible cost. I need hardly say that the nature of the preparatory work varies accord-! ing to the nature of the reef and the locality ; j but, as a general rule, consists in the sinking of a shaft or shafts to the depth at which it! is intended to commence, (the deeper the better, if the gold is there,) and, if at all possible, working the reef up ; or,—which is far the best way, if the locality is favourable, —in putting in a tunnel. By the former plan, although the pick and drill work is more tiresome on the men, working as they must overhead, the shifting of '• mullock" is almost entirely avoided, as it can be directed by a few slabs from the stope into the stull, and the quartz in like manner into the shaft, from whence it can be hauled up to the surface by windlass or whim. Less timber will also keep the ground secure than is required when working down, as the men will always have the worked-out ground below instead of above them. The tunnel, besides possessing all those advantages, entirely supersedes the windlass or whim, —one man with a truck and tramway being able to remove more stuff in a day than two men would haul up, from a depth of over 100 feet, with a windlass in a week ; and this advantage increases in rttio - as it yets deeper. Moreover, as the machine will most likely be in the gully, where wat'»r is available, and the reef almost to a certainty on the hill, the cartage of the quartz will be saved, as it can be delivered from the truck into the mill-paddock direct. I need hardly say that in case of the workings being wet, the advantages are still greater. An apparently small trickling through the tunnel would be sufficient to render the labour of two additional men necessary where a windlass was in use ; and if there was a considerable quantity of water, the claim would be unworkable otherwise than by the use < f ' powerful and expensive mach'nery. To conclude this subject, I may mention j that, the plan in general use here (working thereof downwards) was an obsolete custom in Victoria ten or twelve years ago ; in fact, went out of fashion with the jumping jennies and fossicking knives. There may possibly be fome reefs that cannot be w >rked otherwise : I have never seen them : but there are frequently patches of ground which will cause additional trouble and extra careful timbering. It would be impossible to give an exact estimate of the relative cost of grassing quartz by those different ways ; so much depends on the character of the country, the reef itself, and the quantity of water. * But I believe [ am within the mark when I state that with an ordinary reef, three or four feet thick, the depth exceeding 100 feet, stone can be raised by means of a tunnel and working up for half the price it would cost working down | and hauling up with a windlass, even if dry : if a comparatively small quantity of water exists, you can safely deduct another half. The saving effected by employing whims or whips at the above depth instead of windlasses, seldom exceeds ten percent., unless where the stone is unusually easily broken, —in which case the tunnel and truck system increases its relative superiority to a still greater extent. Another practice that causes a large amount j of useless labour also prevails here": that is, breaking an unnecessary amount of ground jin the cut alongside the reef. Men will tell you they can get along faster in a three-foot cut than in one of eighteen inches. They should recollect that the superiority of a miner over an agricultural labourer consists j in no small degree in his ability to work to ] advantage in a small space and in a constrained position ; that they are making addi- | tional work for the fillers and windlass men,

and that they are necessitating JL longer and stronger props. I belie, of this " muff" system of working tf been introduced from a certain obscn gings in Victoria called Pleasant Cre t ) whence also the blessed ten-hour sysb imported. In my time in 'Victoria, a e Creek mining diploma was rather l a J on such places as Old Bendigo, Clunes other of the really important reehVdj! I am, &c, Ceusp