MINING NEWS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1307, 8 October 1883, Page 2

MINING NEWS.

[From our Mining Reporter] - Saturday, October 6. The event of the week has been the starting of the Globe Company's machinery, and it has engrossed a large share of pubic attention. 'he battery started at noon on Monday last, and with a few stoppages, has been running ever since. It was reported yesterday and again to-day that the plates look well for the time, a circumstance which has not been without its effect upon the tone of the sharemarket generally. The resumption of crushing hy the Fiery Cross Company, Boatman's, is another gratifying item, and as the stampers will be kept going for five or six weeks, a tidy parcel of gold may he expected. The Energetic battery, which has been idle for a very long time past, will be started on Monday next (to-day), and here also there is the prospect of long and steady work. Thus, we have now six batteries in operation, namely, the Keep- , it-Dark, Globe, Fiery Cross, Oriental, Energetic, and Golden Point. The Welcome will probably join the number very shortly, and a month or six weeks later should briug in the Speci- ■ men Hill, Golden Treasure, aud before the close of the year the Inglewood and lukerman. The Golden Fleece, Just-in-Time, and Caledonian Extended are still engaged developing their lower levels, and will also probably give an account of themselves before the end-of i-he year, so that there is a deal pf vitality in the field, and we should commence the new year under . very hopeful auspices. A good deal as been said as to the large amount of capital called up by Inangahua companies during the past year, ■ut it seems hardly understood that the great bulk of it has been expended in the purchase aud erection of crushing machinery, without which no real advancement could be made in making the mines reproductive. For instance, the Goldfields Report which was presented to the late Parliament says :- — " Of the 60 mines in the Reefton district; only two paid dividends during the year, while the other 64 made calls to the extent of £61,545.'' It does not appear to have occurred to th< compil r that gold cannot be extracted from quartz without the aid of machinery. Had he stated that of the 66 mines in the Inangahua 7 possessed batterie^, only two of which yielded dividends, the sta: ement would have been fair enough, though, as a matterof fact, of these seven batteries the Energetic and Caledonian had been laid up for years, and the other three, the Just-in-Time, Fleece aud Wealth of Nations, had only crushed intermittently, being engaged in opening up at "deeper levels. Facts such as these, however, are never troubled about by Reefton's outside critics. There are 6G mines here, and machinery or no machinery a large percentage of them ought to be returning dividends to investors, and because they are not doing so the whole place is utterly rotten, arid we are a community of downright swindlers. If, however, Reefton has called up £61,545 of capital during the past year, ii is satisfactory to know that there is, at all events, something to show for the money. The nine new crushing plants erected here during the period over which the calls extend, leaving out of account the large sum expended in additions to the older batteries, winding gear, rock-borers and otlier labor-saving appliances, are the result of that outlay, and there is very litile doubt that it has been well spent. The following are the battery returns for the past week : — Keep-it-Dark— 3020zs of amalgam, from 175 tons of stone, Fn by Cross Extend fd-~4150zs of amalgam, from 90 tons of stone. Oriental Company— l< >7ozs 13dwts of amalgam, for five day's crushing JUST-IN-TIME AND IMPERIAL. The total distance now driven on tha boundary of the two claims is 97ft. The country is now much easier. WALHALLA EXTENDED. Mr Stephen Vivian, who was mine manager of the Rainy Creek Extended Company up to the time of suspending operations, has been placed in charge of this mine. *