MINING ENTERPRISE IN OTAGO.

Inangahua Times, Volume XI, Issue 1743, 13 August 1886, Page 2

MINING ENTERPRISE IN OTAGO.

A NEW ZEALAND LANDSEL.

(From the

Age.)

The enterprise displayed by the owner Mr Gro. F. Buhen of the Phoenix, mine, Queeustown, New Zealand, is an example deserving of Itnitu tion. The great drawback to most joint stock mining enterprises is that they are l.eguu with insufficient capital. If success attend the operations fiom. the outset — a very rare case — the mine is developed out of the receipts, and pays dividends as well, but it is far more commonly the case that the subscribed capital is swallowed up in exploration and the purchase of machinery, and that the receipts are insufficient without constant culls — of which the shareholders soon get tired — to develop the mine systematically. Many ptomisingenterprises are wrecked in this way, and ui.ny more that ateat first successful in obtaining good yields, collapse when it is needful to spend large sums in opening out fresh workings. The proprietor of the Pbcmiix mine, however, being satisfied that he had a good thing, and having fortunately also the capital to work it, has not hesitated to spend money freely until a Bum something lik* £50.000 in all has been put into this one venture Happily the prospects of good returns for a length of time are ouch as to justify the expenditure, for the returns % L > till 81sl liutib lust, from the time

Mr Evans (the manager, an old Victorian and Cornish miner) took charge iv 1867, have been 14,9340z of gold, and the yield is increasing, for during the last thirteen months the mine has produced iust over 69000z. The con sequence is that new aud more powerful machinery, driving, power, and other appliances have been rendered ; necessary to enable the increasing yield of paying quartz to be quickly and satisfactorily dealt with. The increased work, however, began to seriously tax the limited supply of the only power available— viz., water,— so ; that before any further extension of the workings could be undertaken the ; manager had to solve the by no means easy problem of providing a constant and efficient power for working the various and increasing machines used in and about the mine. The power available up till then was supplied by a LeMl turbine, which was capaWl* under the most favorable circumstance* — i.e., when the water supply whs plentiful — of working a tiattery ot 20 heads. This amount of pow r only lasted about five month*, the water dimishing in volume during the summer (nieltinnr snow) and winter (frost tOO hard to :»elt <now) iiio'ltl 8 to almost nothing, so that the average for the. year was less than sufficient to run ten stamp heads. Steam power was out of the question, there beiug no coal in the district, and thn cost of wood was prohibitory, park horses being meeasaiy to carry it several miles o*et mountain tracks. Water there was none in the vicinity, but as a hill over 800 feet hisjh lay between, and tli** valley containing the water was between 2 and 8 miles distant, a water-race wns almost prohibitory, except at a cost of at lea^t. £5000, as it would have to be circuitous und of great length to overcome the rising and intervening ground Moreover, the race would have required at least ' six men constantly employed to keep it in working order, as in the winter time it would have been filled with snow and ice ; i k s position being adove | the snow line. After considering | transmission by means of wire rope • and compressed air it was found lioth i were impracticable for a distance of over 2 miles in such mountainous country aud at an altitude of over 8000 feet above the «ea level. The : question of using electricity as the transmitting agent then cropped up in the mind of the manager and. bis son (the assistant mine manager), but there |is no recorded account of so much power as 20 to 80 h.p. being exerted by one electro-motor, and under such circumstances there was doubt as to ' the practicability f>f that also. After conversation with Mr Walter Prince, electrical engineer, of Dnnedin, that gentleman was found willing to under take what yaa even to him a somewhat experimental and venturesomecontraet, by which he agreed to run twenty stamp heads at seventy blows per minute, using the <Uato«Vwater power before mentioned, and transmitting it by means of a naked copper wire, of the same size as a tele" graph wire, to the motor of the buttery. Of course Mr Bullen and his manager were 1 ok«d upon as mis «iu'led enthusiasts, and the usual croakiugs and predictions as to fat' lire were indulged in freely by outsiders; but now that the scheme ia an accom plished fact, they will receive, no doubt, the congratulations they deserve as the pioneers of a system of transmitting power that is likely to play iv the immediate fntnre an important part in the development of gold mines | where water power is several miles • distant, aud where coal is inaccessahle or prohibitive in con-, for ten miles distance could be as easily overcome as one mile, and at very little more cost. Mr Prince superintended the erection of the apparatus himself, and had pro ceeded far enough to have a partial and temporary trial of the. new power when he met with an accident which nearly cost him his life, his horse having bolted with him over one of the precipitous mountain tracks. Mr Fletcher, electrician, of Dnnedin, then came up to finish the work, but wan not destined to have smooth sailing, as several faults developed themselves in the motor aud generators, caused principally through injuries received in transit over 80 miles of rough mountain track, and about a hundred immersio'S iv the mountain stream*.

These, although causing some delay, were not of a wri >us rharacttr, and were Kiiccessfully overcome and re

paired

Although the contract stipulated that only 20 heads were to l>e driven, the apparatus is sufficiently powerful to work 30, if necessary, and 10 more have., therefore, since own added. Not the slightest difficulty is ex. pel ietut'd in starting and stopping ; it starts very easily, and can, if necessary, >>c stopped almost iiisferotaneously. It has not bent) found necessary to have any skilled hands to work the plant, there . bniug a man told off in each shift totake charge of the' motor and battery, no one e'ae of course being allowed to meddle in any way.

In conclusion, the success of the whole undertaking may be fairly said to have been accomplished In fact, to use the. words <>f the manager, Mr F. Evans, M the machinery ia working beautifully and the power is snffi'-ifiit ut the present time to k -ep going at least five, and probably ten, more B turn p heads." This new application of electric power for the working of an extensive mine like the Phoenix opens up another era in the economic development of mining.