Lane’s Shaft, Boulder Perseverance Mine
By this time I was ready to go down in the bucket, so we took another walk of about a quarter of a mile along the drive to another shaft called Lane’s Shaft, named after Mr. Zebina Lane. In this shaft was the bucket. Never having been in a bucket before for the purpose of a downward journey of 200 feet I felt a tiny bit nervous. However, the journey was perfectly safe, and when I arrived at the bottom I saw a grand sight which I shall never forget. There was still much smoke hanging about from the blasting. Some 20 men with candles alight were waiting about in the gloom, some of them partly black from handling powder. Over 70 tons of sulphide ore had just been blasted out, and lay about in great pieces and boulders. The cave—for such it looked—fairly sparkled with richness, the different minerals in the sulphide rock shining like diamonds. I climbed over the great boulders and went all over the stope, picking out any sparkling bits that took my fancy, and a miner was sent on ahead to try the sides for fear of any loose rock falling on me. The lode here is 41 feet wide, and very rich indeed. It was pretty rough climbing, I can assure you, but I would not have missed it on any account. On the return journey I went up the entire 500-foot shaft in the bucket, and although deeply interested by all I saw, I was not sorry to breathe once more in the sunshine away from dynamite and rocks.
Some idea of the wealth of this mine may be given by the fact that the last shipment from the western lode averaged 17 ounces per ton. The high-grade oxidised ore in the upper levels, of which I spoke before, is an immensely rich body of mineral, continuing in richness for an eighth of a mile. Another lode, on a lower level, near the Lake View Consols, is nearly three-quarters of a mile long, and so phenomenally wide and rich that even Americans, who are generally apt to throw cold water on our mines, admit that its equal is unknown in the world; in fact, the Boulder Perseverance shows every sign of becoming the richest mine on the field, for the more it is opened up the better it looks and the richer it becomes.
Mr. Zebina Lane and Mr. Frank Gardner, besides controlling the Boulder Perseverance, the Boulder Bonanza, Great Boulder South, and other rich mines in Western Australia, have more recently taken over Hannan’s Public Crushing Company, Central Australian Exploration Syndicate, and Collie Coalfields, lately floated with a capital of £150,000. At the banquet given to Mr. Lane last year previous to his departure for London, he said that on this coalfield there was enough coal at sight to last the colony for 20 years. It was Mr. Lane who in 1893 placed the now wonderful Great Boulder Mine before London investors. The Boulder Perseverance Mine shares could at that time be bought for a few shillings, now they are of high value, and Mr. Lane has made a large fortune out of his various mining transactions. Among the properties in Western Australia turning out among them the enormous quantities of gold of which we know, the properties partly controlled by Mr. Lane have turned out nearly half. Western Australia has no truer friend than he; he battled on behalf of the colony for years before prosperity came; went all over the goldfields, endured all kinds of hardships on the arid plains, and earned his success fairly. The other two gold mines on the Kalgoorlie field belonging to the British Westralia Syndicate, and under the part control of Mr. Lane, namely, the Great Boulder South and Boulder Bonanza, are lower down the field, over the Golden Hill, and near the Great Boulder and Lake View Consols. The aforesaid mines join each other, and no doubt the continuation of the famous lodes of these great mines will be eventually picked up by the Great Boulder South and Bonanza. The diamond drill is being used to advantage, and great things may be looked for in the future from its developments.
The British Westralia Syndicate was formed by Messrs. F. L. Gardner and Zebina Lane in October 1894, and registered on the 6th of that month with a capital of £80,000 fully paid-up shares, the Syndicate really consisting of only four members, the other two being the late Mr. Barney Barnato and Mr. Woolf Joel, who was assassinated in Johannesburg.
Since the incorporation of the company, regular dividends of 50 per cent. per annum have been paid, and last year a 50 per cent. bonus was divided in addition. As I said before, the shares now stand high in the market, and show every likelihood of rising to £20. The Syndicate’s palatial offices in Moorgate Street are, if not the finest, one of the finest suites in the city of London. Mr. F. L. Gardner is the chairman of the company, and Mr. Z. Lane the managing director and superintending engineer.
In addition to the above-mentioned mines, Mr. Lane has recently taken in hand three properties in the Nannine country, Upper Murchison, all of which have developed into paying properties and are making good returns.
Mr. F. L. Gardner, chairman of the British Westralia Syndicate and its offshoots, has long been associated with Australian mining, but was drawn into West Australian ventures by his old friend Zeb. Lane. His speculations in Great Boulder, Perseverance, Lake Views, Crushing Company, Boulder South, and the ever-increasing dividend-paying British Westralia Syndicate, have amply repaid him for his courage.