Selected text extracts

Waihi Gladstone Gold-mining Company Battery

Mines Statements

1891

Inspector of Mines to 31 March, 1891. Waihi.

Gladstone.—

About 500ft. of driving (prospecting) has been done, but no quartz has yet been discovered.

1897

Inspecting Engineer to 31 March, 1897. Waihi District.

The Gladstone Mine, which is now owned by an English company, had a staff of men employed for several months past in sinking a shaft and clearing out the old levels formerly driven in the mine.

The New Zealand Mines Record:

Vol 1 August 1897. No.1

The Waihi-Gladstone are pushing ahead with the adit-level, and a winze will be sunk to connect with the 100 ft. level, so as to keep the mine well ventilated.

1898

Inspecting Engineer to 31 March 1898. Waihi District

P69 C3

Waihi Gladstone Mine (Area, 66 acres 2 roods 8 perches; owners, Waihi Gladstone Gold-mining Company).—During the year a shaft 6ft. by 3ft. was sunk to a depth of 175ft., a level was opened at 100 ft. down, and 200ft. of driving was done on a reef 6 ft. in width; a winze was also sunk on this reef, the quartz improving in quality as sinking progressed. Nine men were employed.

1899

Inspecting Engineer to 31 March 1899

P65 C3

Waihi Gladstone Mine

(Area, 62 acres and 8 perches ; owners, Waihi Gladstone Gold-mining Company, Limited; mine-manager, S. Radford).—This mine, which adjoins the Silverton, has been well prospected since the present owners came into possession. A shaft has been sunk to a depth of 187 ft., and two levels opened at depths of 100 ft. and 200 ft. respectively. There are three reefs on the property, the ore being of a refractory character. No crushing of quartz has been recorded during the year. Seven wages-men are employed.

1901

Inspector of Mines, to 31 December 1900. Waihi.

Waihi Gladstone.—

Operations in this mine have been confined to the development of the main reef in the No. 3 level, which varies in size from 4ft. to 6 ft., its strike being north and south. It has been driven on at this level for 60ft., and is said to be of a payable character so far as exploited In the Nos. 1 and 2 levels the reef has been opened up to a considerable extent. There are several hundred tons of quartz stacked on the surface and intended for treatment, but so far no large quantity has yet been put through a mill. Six men are employed.

1902

Inspecting Engineer to 31 December 1901

C 3 P37

Waihi Gladstone Gold-mining Company.—

Prospecting and developing work has been steadily carried on in this mine during the year. The No. 2 shaft, to the west of No. 1 workings, has been sunk to a depth of 148ft., and a crosscut drive has been driven at this depth to intersect the main reef, which has been opened up and driven on to a considerable extent from the No. 1 shaft, at the No. 1 and No. 2 levels. The reef in those levels varies from 4 ft. to 6 ft. in width, and the greater portion is said to be payable ore. A trial parcel of 2 tons of general ore was lately treated at the Thames School of Mines, which gave a return of 7 oz. 3dwt. of gold; value, £4 15s. 2d. An average of eight men has been employed.

1904

Inspector of Mines

Waihi Gladstone.—Operations in this mine (which is worked by a syndicate) have not turned out as successful as was anticipated. The small five-stamp battery which the owners erected on the property was completed about the middle of the year, when crushing operations were commenced for the purpose of testing in bulk the value of the ore won from the different prospecting and development workings of the mine. The reefs vary from 1 ft. to 6 ft. in width at different points of the property. The method of treatment adopted was wet crushing and plate amalgamation. Up to the present however, the results obtained have not proved of a payable nature. The total quantity put through the mill was 400 tons of quartz from which 47 oz. 10 dwt. of gold was obtained ; value, £115 3s. 9d. An average of six men were employed.

1905

The Waihi Gladstone Gold-mining Company (Limited) : This company have fitted up a cyanide plant, and commenced treating the ore obtained from the ground, but so far have failed to secure payable results. They are still experimenting, and hope before long to be able to extract the gold in sufficient quantities to recompense them for the labour and expense they have gone to.

Inspector of Mines to 31 December 1904

P32

Waihi Gold Reefs Syndicate (Gladstone}.—

In May last it was decided to erect a cyanide plant, and when this was completed 300 tons of ore were mined and treated. The extraction not being satisfactory, it was decided to erect a Union vanner to concentrate the ore before treatment by cyanide. On completion of erection of vanner, mining and crushing will be proceeded with. The plant consists of a five-stamp battery (900 lb. stamps), ore-breaker, Challenge ore-feeder, a cyanide plant consisting of (sand?)-vats 20ft by 4ft, two agitators, 12ft by 8ft., two slime collectors, 12ft by 6ft., two ? boxes, two solution-sumps with pumps and elevator, driven by 13-horse-power Tangye ?. Eight men were employed during the year.

From Bulletin No 26 NZ Geological Survey. Waihi Goldfield.

P 135

Gladstone Lodes.

Several lodes, with a thickness of from 4 ft. to 7 ft., occur in the area south of the Silverton workings formerly held by the Waihi Gold-reefs Syndicate, later known as the Waihi-Gladstone Gold-mining Company. According to Bell and Fraser (Bull. No. 15, p. 172) three veins, all striking north-eastward, parallel to the Mascotte and Amaranth lodes, have been prospected. They state that the veinstone is similar to that of the Amaranth and other lodes. Some of it is pyritic, and as seen on the mine-dumps is of poor appearance, but the possibility of undiscovered ore-shoots can hardly be considered as affected thereby. After the time of Bell and Fraser's examination very little work was done on the Gladstone Claim, either by the Waihi-Gladstone Company or its successors, the Waihi Standard. No ore was mined, but, as shown by the table on page L32, the battery was twice cleaned up, a few pounds' worth of bullion being obtained each time. The total recorded production is £445 11s. 7d., obtained from 553 tons of quartz. During the past few years the battery and all other equipment have been removed from the claim

P 36

"Quartz Blows."

Several massive outcrops of flinty chalcedonic quartz occur on the Gladstone Hill, south-east of Rosemont Hill. These, and a similar mass which outcrops 3 chains east of the Silverton lode, are shown on the large-scale map of the Waihi Goldfield. They have been thought to resemble altered siliceous sinters, but probably are not of that character. They seem rather to be silicified masses of rock. It is said that adits have been driven underneath some of them without encountering quartz, but perhaps a mistaken direction of strike was assumed. The quartz blows and sinters are discussed at greater length in Chapter IV, pages 75, 98, &c.

Downey 1935

Waihi-Gladstone Claim.---

This was situated on the south-eastern boundaries of the Union and Silverton Claims. Several reefs, varying from 2 ft. to 6 ft. in width, were located in it striking parallel to the Union and Amaranth reefs. More or less prospecting was done on these by private parties in the early days, but in 1897 an English company, the Waihi-Gladstone Gold-mining Co., took the property over and started the sinking of a shaft, which was eventually carried down to 257 ft. Three levels were opened from it, in which the largest and most promising of the reefs was tested for a considerable distance, but throughout it proved to be of low value. About 1902 the claim passed to the Waihi Gold Reefs Syndicate, which sent a parcel of 2 tons of the ore to the Thames School of Mines for treatment, where it yielded 7 oz. bullion, valued at £4 15s.2d. This return was not very encouraging; nevertheless the syndicate proceeded with the erection of a five-stamp battery. Crushing was started in this plant about the middle of 1903, and up to the end of 1905, 850 tons of ore were treated for a return of 696 oz. bullion, valued at £415. After this period the syndicate does not seem to have done much work on the property, which, in 1912, was evidently taken over by the Waihi Standard Gold-mining Co. Beyond cleaning out the old workings, extending the lowest level 90 ft. northward on the reef, and sinking a winze a short distance below the level, this company did little work, and ceased operations in 1913, since when the ground has lain idle. The total output of the claim was thus 852 tons of quartz, which yielded 704 oz. bullion, valued at £420.

Cyclopedia of New Zealand 1902

Page 503

Waihi-Gladstone Gold Mine

This property, which is situated in Waihi adjoining the old Waihi-Silverton Mine, has the same system of reefs running through it as the latter, and has an area of sixty-two acres. A number of reefs have been encountered, some of them coming in from the Union-Waihi shaft. Two cross-cuts have been driven, and the reefs that have been developed have given very satisfactory returns. Mr. J. Langford acts as mine superintendent, and Mr. H. Gilfillan, Junior, is attorney and local secretary. The capital is £100,000 in £1 shares.

Mr. James Langford, General Manager of the Waihi-Gladstone Gold Mining Company, Limited, was born in Yorkshire, in 1844. He was brought up as a civil engineer, and came to Auckland in 1863. As the Maori war was then on, Mr. Langford travelled over the Australian colonies, and was for a number of years engaged in mining. He was one of the pioneers on the West Coast, and at the Thames, and his home has been in Parnell, Auckland, since 1880. He visited England, the Continent of Europe, and America in 1896, and while in England he was appointed consulting engineer on mining properties generally to an English syndicate.

Mr. Samuel Radford, for some time Mine Manager of the Waihi-Gladstone Gold Mine, was born in 1847 in Devonshire, England, where he was educated and brought up to the mining from boyhood. In 1866 he went to Victoria, and began mining at the Port Phillip Company's works at Clunes. Mr. Radford has had a large colonial experience in mining, having been employed at all the large centres in Australasia, and the exceptionally favourable testimonials which he holds from his numerous employers, show that he has given entire satisfaction. Under the supervision of Mr. Radford, who took his present position in 1896, the shaft of the "Gladstone" has been sunk to a depth of 157 feet, and cross-cuts made to a distance of 180 feet, the east cross-cut intersecting a lode six feet in width. There are now twenty-three men employed in the mine. Mr. Radford is a brother of Mr. Thomas Radford, at one time mayor of the Thames. He is married and has seven sons and one daughter.

Newspapers

5 June 1911

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 132, 5 June 1911

WAIHI GLADSTONE. (By Telegraph Own Correspondent:) WAIHI, this day.

Mr. H. H. Adams, who purchased the Waihi Gladstone mine and plant, paid visit to Waihi on Saturday and inspected the property. Mr. Adams intends to commence development work within a few weeks and open the mine up in a systematic manner, and already two men are employed on the surface. Some 2000 ft of driving have been done in the mine, and reefs are ready to stope. It is Mr. Adams' intention to negotiate for the use of the Waihi Company's old Silverton battery and the Silverton mine shaft. The latter would be connected with the Gladstone workings (as it adjoins the property), and be used as the main shaft.

25 October 1911

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 254, 25 October 1911

WAIHI STANDARD. WAIHI, this day. I understand that the Waihi Company has sold the Union Mill (Old Silvertown battery) to Mr. H. H. Adams, who will work it in connection with the Gladstone mine which he recently purchased.

The purchase has been made on behalf of a company which has acquired the Waihi Gladstone mine and plant, and is to he known as the Waihi Standard No-liability, with a capital of £20,000 in 200,000 shares at 2/ each. Operations have been started at the mine under the managership of Mr. James Thomas, it is intended to push forward development work vigorously. A winding plant has been purchased and will be erected at the shaft, and one of the first works to be undertaken is to drive to cut the Waihi Silverton lode. Operations will be also undertaken on the Salisbury reef, from which ore can at once be broken to keep the battery going.

27 October 1911

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14822, 27 October 1911

SALE OF UNION BATTERY. [by TELEGRAPH.OWN correspondent.] Waihi, Thursday. The Waihi Company's Union battery (more generally known as the Silverton Mill), which was closed down when the management decided to reduce the monthly gold output, has been sold to Mr. H. H. Adams, who recently purchased the Waihi Gladstone mine. It is understood that the mill, which is of 30 stamps, was acquired for use in connection with the Gladstone property.

6 December 1911

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 290, 6 December 1911

WAIHI STANDARD. The Company has been successfully floated for the purpose of developing the Waihi Gladstone property. Poppet heads are being erected, and a winding plant installed. It is expected that the plant will be ready to start on the reef before Christmas holidays. The Union battery, which was purchased from the Waihi Company, is now treating old tailings. The stampers are being put in order, and it is proposed to keep 10 head of stampers at work to test the value of the ore broken from the two reefs that were opened up by the old Company.