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cross-cutting at No. 4 level; stoping, driving, and sinking on the cross-reef and Darby's and Kelly's leaders at Nos. 1, 2, and 3 levels. In prosecuting those works winzes were sunk 196 ft., driving cross-cuts 752 ft., driving on reefs 1,726 ft., and repairing old levels 1,950 ft. The quantity of quartz crushed was 223 tons, which yielded, by amalgamation, 1,174 oz. 9 dwt. of gold, valued at £3,139 ss. 7d. Thirty-seven men were employed. Moanataiari District. Moanataiari Mine. —This company has, during the past twelve months, done a very large amount of development work in the mine, and still has a considerable amount to do before the mine can be said to be fully opened up. The mine is divided into two distinct sections—namely, the eastern and western sections. Eastern section : The eastern section is the portion of the property on the east side of the main Moanataiari slide. The work in this portion of the mine has been extending the Point Russell level to the boundary of the property on the Golden Age reef, and also extending the intermediate and 100 ft. levels on the Golden Age and Reuben Parr reefs. The mainadit level, known as the Moanataiari Tunnel, has been extended for a distance of 600 ft., making a total length that this adit level goes back into the range of 3,700 ft. In extending the main-adit level a deviation from the straight line was made at 3,200 ft. in from the mouth, in order to get clear of a hard bar of rock, and also to intercept and follow the course of the Golden Age lode on that level. An uprise has been constructed from the end of the main adit for a height of 120 ft., and a drive is now in course of construction to cut the Reuben Parr lode underneath the place where a chute of good ore was found on the 100 ft. level. At the main-tunnel level the Golden Age reef is broken up to a large extent, and is not nearly so well defined as it is on the upper levels. On the Point Russell level it has an average of fully 6 ft. in width, and in some places it widens out to a width of 12 ft., whereas in the main-adit level it is only from 18in. to 3ft. in width. Nests of specimen stone are occasionally found above the Point Russell level, although the general body of the ore is comparatively of low grade. It is expected that the Reuben Parr and Golden Age reefs will junction between the 100 ft. level and the main-adit level, but the junction of these reefs has not yet been met with. Western section: The western section of the mine is that portion which lies on the seaward side of the Moanataiari slide. Previous to the present company taking over the mine all the known payable ore was taken out of this section to a depth of about 150 ft. below the main adit level, which was worked from a shaft constructed in a chamber a little to the northward of the main-adit level, and at a distance of about 1,400 ft. in from its mouth. This shaft has now been abandoned, and the whole of the workings in this section are carried on from a new shaft, which has been sunk on the south side of the Moanataiari Creek to a depth of about 500 ft., or about 400 ft. below the level of the 'main adit. Four different levels have been opened out from this shaft, and stoping is now being done on the No. 1 and No. 2 Caledonian reefs, on No. 2 and No. 3 levels, and also on the No. 9 Moanataiari reef on No. 1 level. A level was opened out at the bottom of the shaft, and the No. 1 and No. 2 Caledonian reefs were cut and driven on for some distance; but the general body of the ore in the reefs at this level, so far as the working has advanced, is of comparatively low grade. The No. 1 reef has a thickness of about 24 ft., and carries a great deal of mineral, and from its appearance one would think that it should contain good ore. The impression is, however, that a good chute of ore is not far distant. All working on this level is suspended for the present, until the development on the Cambria reef is further advanced. A cross-cut of nearly 1,000 ft. in length has been constructed from the shaft on the No. 3 level to the Cambria reef, which is now being driven on, and several veins and stringers of highly auriferous quartz are met with, coming in from the country-rock into the hanging-wall side of the lode. The reef itself is enclosed in a splendid class of country-rock, where one would expect to find a body of good ore in the reefs, but, so far as yet opened out, the best portion of the reef is on the hangingwall side. In driving eastward from the cross-cut towards the main slide a slight break has recently been met with, and it is expected that as soon as this break has been gone through, good ore will be found in the general body of the lode. A cross-lode was met with in constructing the crosscut from the shaft, but the juncture of the cross-lode and the main Cambria reef has not yet been reached, and it is now apparent that this cross-lode has something to do with the break that has been met with. A large amount of development work had to be done in this portion of the mine to get connections for ventilation with the old drives in the Kuranui Caledonian Mine, and an uprise will have yet to be constructed to the old workings in the Cambria Mine, which now belongs to the Moanataiari Company, before good ventilation is secured. Crushing battery : A new crushing battery has been erected, consisting of sixty stamps of I,loolb. each, two BlakeMarsden 16 in. by 10 in. rock-breakers, twelve Challenge automatic ore-feeders, twentyfour vanners —twelve of each are of the Union pattern and twelve of the Frue—twenty-one berdans, and a cyanide plant, consisting of three iron percolating-vats each 20 ft. in diameter and 3ft. in depth, along with solution- and mixing-vats, and also two concrete sumps; and a vacuum boiler and pump. Owing to the main adit being at so low a level —only some 20 ft. above the level of the flat—and the street passing close in alongside the range, the grizzly and rock-breakers had to be constructed at a lower level than the bins or hoppers for holding ore to feed the stamps. The ore, as it comes out of the mine, is dumped on to the grizzly, and the fine material passes through the bars into a hopper, while the large pieces of ore are landed on a flat sheet, and fed into the rockbreakers, and after passing through these fall into the same hopper where the fine material lands after passing through the bars of the grizzly. The broken ore from this hopper is taken up by trucks on two cages worked by two hydraulic lifts to such a height as enables the trucks to be run along on the top of the storage-hoppers, from which the ore passes into the automatic ore-feeders, and is fed into the mortar-boxes. The stamping battery is constructed in two sections, each section consisting of thirty heads, having about 30 ft. between them. Each thirty heads is driven by a separate Pelton water-wheel, while another Pelton wheel drives the stone-breakers. The battery is so arranged that a steam-engine is erected on a concrete and brick foundation between the two

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