I estimate there is sufficient of this to last for six years on the two areas we have taken up, but this does not include some fairly extensive deposits between the three N’Gell streams and outside our small mining leases, which we have recently found to exist. We have not attempted to develop these higher deposits, but wherever tried they carry good values, and if by careful selection we added them to the existing areas, the proposition would become an important one as far as quantity is concerned. The difficulty lies in economical working. The present method, although profitable, is unsatisfactory, at any rate from an engineering point of view; my experience of the last three months has proved that sluicing in a small way can only proceed between seasons—in the dry season only hand-work can be done, and at the height of the rains the sluices cannot be fixed low enough to receive the sluicing water. It is essentially an elevating proposition, but without power, fuel, or water, we are helpless. I therefore recommend you, should an opportunity occur, to give careful consideration to any amalgamation scheme which our neighbours on the N’Gell River might think desirable after they become familiar with their property, especially if they decide to work on a large scale.
Should no opportunity of the kind occur, I advise you to take the best out of the three streams and their alluvial banks by our present cheap sluicing methods and handwork during the next six years or so. A good engineer and an assistant would be required to supervise, but the former would only be required at certain seasons and not permanently on the property. I am preparing a list of plant required to work economically on these lines on the three streams.
Export.—The tin won was all first grade, assaying 72 per cent. to 73 per cent. 644 bags, weighing net 19 tons 9 cwts. 3 qrs. 7 lbs., were despatched in November, and 350 bags, weighing net 10 tons 10 cwts. 1 qr. 24 lbs., were despatched this month, making a total of 30 tons 0 cwts. 1 qr. 3 lbs.
General.—The plant has been properly laid up and protected from the weather for the dry season, and a watchman has been placed in charge.
I am, &c.,
(Signed) H. W. LAWS.
Since the preparation of the foregoing particulars a report has been received from the company’s manager giving the first detailed particulars of the prospecting as follows:—
“Prospecting.—With regard to this important subject I expect to have a little more to say when I have a general map ready to forward to you. The shaft in Section 26 which you asked about in your letter of 26th July was not got down to bedrock on account of water, and there were no results to report. In prospecting the streams of the central and northern part of the 40-mile area, we found tin in many places in various quantities, and irregularly distributed. Apparently the best stream is that one which runs through Section 28; while prospecting there we calabashed out five tons very easily from the bed of the stream, which tin we have in stock and shall report it to the Government as soon as the mining lease is applied for. The prospecting by numerous pits shows that the ground is too irregular in values outside the bed of the stream to make satisfactory estimates until some sluicing is done, which will be a relatively easy matter when we have the mining lease. There is another stream about three miles further north which I think will warrant taking up, but perhaps not quite so good as that in Section 28.