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BULLEII VALLEY. Practically no work is now carried on in the Bullcr Valley. WESTPORT DISTRICT. Carthage Company has ceased operations, and a few old men who work intermittently on the beach have been the only producers of gold during the year. addison's flat. Working-parties are still making good wages at Addison's. Shamrock Claim is again being worked on behalf of English owners, brU the result of the year's work has been very poor. The claim is now known as the " Totara Mines." Addison Gold-mininq Company. —Development-work is still in progress at this claim (Carmody's), and somewhat slow progress has been made. Sluicing is expected to commence very early in the new year. CHARLESTON. There is nothing new to report from Charleston. Messrs. Powell Bros, and Buttcrworth and party have been working throughout the year and have bad satisfactory returns. GREY VALLEY. The miners in the Grey Valley are becoming fewer each year, and returns from this source are small. There has been nothing calling for comment during the year. Lake Hochstetter Company is still carrying on water-race construction, and lias been reconstructed during the year in order to provide sufficient capital to finish the work. BARRYTOWN. McKay and party continue to get payable returns, but no other claims are now at work. KUMARA DISTRICT. The number of working-miners between Greymouth and Hokitika has remained about the same as for the previous year. Golden Terrace Company, at Maori Cully, has employed seven men for a return of 76 oz. —a very disappointing result. Ilohonu Diamond Terrace Company has continued sluicing with the small water-supply available, and has obtained £622 worth of gold. No work has been done upon the larger water-race. HOKITIKA DISTRICT. , There has been a renewal of activity in mining matters in Hokitika this year, owing to Australian capitalists having carried on the prospecting of large areas of alluvial ground in the district. Rimu Flat has been proved by Keystone drilling to bo rich dredging ground, and one dredge is now about to start woik, while others will be built as soon as financial arrangements can be made under the War Regulations. At present tlie formation of new companies is scarcely possible. Brighton Terrace Sluicing Company. —This company is now preparing to sluice an area adjoining Rimu Flat and facing the Hokitika River, using electric power to pump water from the river for sluicing purposes. The power plant at Kanieri Forks installed by the Ross Goldfields Company is being used as a power source for this work, and the pump-station at Woodstock is nearing completion. If the ground in this claim proves as good as the trial bores indicate the work should prove remunerative even after paying for water. Mr. Powell and his principals deserve every encouragement, as they are really the pioneers in this method of mining so far as Westland is concerned. Other Prospecting. —Mr. K. S. Hungerford, representing the Malayan Dredging Corporation, has carried on extensive prospecting at Duke's Terrace, Kumara; at Pine Creek, near Rimu Flat; and in the neighbourhood of Lake Kanieri. At Duke's Terrace three bores were put down and several shafts were sunk, but values were too low to warrant further work. At Pine Creek eighteen shafts were sunk, the deepest being 50 ft, The leads of gold proved to be narrow, and the average value of the ground too low to be profitable for dredging. Near Lake Kanieri Mr. Hungerford is at. present prospecting, and reports that he has sunk twenty shafts, the deepest being 100 ft. The bottom has not been found. There are several rich runs of gold in the area, and there appears to bo every probability of this being a highly payable property. It is proposed to work by free sluicing, using Humphrey's Gully water for this purpose. ROSS. There is practically no mining now being carried on at Ross. The plant on the Ross Goldfields Mine has been nearly all removed. Southern Inspection District. (Mr. A. Whitley, Inspector of Mines.) Quartz-mining. Quartz-mining in Otago during the past year has been carried on chiefly for the production of scheelite, an ore of tungsten, which mineral occurs in quartz lodes in schist at Glenorchy, Macrae's, The Reefs, Waipori, and Bendigo. At Macrae's it is associated with gold in the lodes, but the latter metal is now looked upon as a seoondary product, I'm- owing to the war having created an increased value and demand for scheelite it has been found the most profitable to mine.
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