Copper.

There are only three copper lodes of importance as yet found in the Province, two near Lake Wakatipu and one at Waitahuna. When searching for gold in the bed of the Waitahuna river, some miners about 1864 found blocks of copper ore in the gravel. A party was formed to prospect for the lode, several shallow shafts were put down near where there were indications, and with little trouble what appeared to be a good lode was found. A mining engineer was then employed to report on the lode, and Dr Hector also visited it about the same time, and reported favorably. The following is from the engineer's report, dated 25th November, 1865,—"The mine is situated S.S.W. of the township of Waipori and 2 miles from the Waitahuna faces. In the bed of the river, massive blocks of ore from 2 to 3 feet thick were found immediately under the water level. The trend of the lode is N.W. to S.E. with a dip of 30° to the S.W. A shaft has been sunk in the bed of the creek, where the lode was cut at a depth of nine feet, showing a thickness of 4 feet, with ore of superior quality, having a product of 14 per cent, of metallic copper. The lode consists of perfectly solid ore, dipping at an angle of 20° S. W., and continues uninteruptedly through a cross run of 2 feet thickness." After giving advice as to the working of the deposit, the Engineer estimates the cost of raising ore at .£1 per ton, with cartage to Dunedin and lighterage to Port Chalmers at £3 15s. Summing up he says :—"The ore, copper pyrites, is that species of ore found in great quantities and regularity. The ore found in the shaft is of sufficient richness to bear the heavy expense of transport and shipment to England. On the whole, therefore, I consider the mine well worthy of a fair trial, and hold that the present indications of the lode and the position of the mine fully justify the outlay of capital." For this purpose, on the strength of this report, Mr. John Bathgate, Mr. W. H. Reynolds, Mr. Julius Vogel, and others endeavoured to float a company, but at the time nothing was in favor but gold mining, so the capital required was not subscribed. In 1881 a great change had taken place. Instead of heavy clay roads, with bullock teams, a railway had been made to within a few miles of the mine, causing a great reduction in the cost of transit, labour had become cheaper, and capital more plentiful. Another attempt was made to get the necessary capital to work the Waitahuna Copper Mine, and again amongst the names of the Provisional Directors were those of Mr Bathgate and the Hon. W. H. Reynolds, those two page 15 gentlemen never having lost faith in the mine. This time the company was successfully floated, and now a powerful plant is being erected to test the lode.

As the cost of smelting copper ore will be discussed further on, I will proceed to give some account of the two copper lodes near Lake Wakatipu, one of which was discovered in 1863, and the other last year.

Regarding the lode found in 1863, it has been the subject of so much controversy that to give a detailed account of it up to the present time would fill a volume.

Notwithstanding that at the time Mr Hackett visited the lode, there was no road between Lake Wakatipu and the Bluff, he recommended that page 16 the lode should be worked. Even supposing there had been a good cart road, the cartage would not have been less than £5 per ton. At that time, too, the cost of labour was very high.

The opinion of so distinguished and highly competent a geologist justified the owners in endeavouring to open the mine. This they did by putting in a tunnel, but after laying out £1500, work was suspended with the view of getting increased capital. But nothing further was done for some considerable time, and as the country was being rapidly opened up and roads extended it was thought that by waiting a few years they would be able to avail themselves of the public roads.

Then began a series of attempts by other claimants to oust the original party from the lease which had been granted them; and in 1881 their right to the ground was cancelled. In the meantime not only roads but railways had been formed, including one connecting Lake Wakatipu with both Port Chalmers and the Bluff.

The new owners of the mine, with the view of raising the necessary capital to work the copper lode, erect furnaces, &c., secured the services of another mining engineer to examine and report on the lode.

In his report dated October 26th, 1881, he says :—"The lease of 80 acres I find contains a copper lode in a copperous slaty formation in the mica schist rock. The ore consists of veins of copper and iron pyrites, varying in thickness, expanding and contracting within a few feet. There are no deep underground workings (the tunnel put in by Bradshaw and Company having fallen in on the lode), but I was able to examine it at various different points on the surface. On the north side of the creek there are three veins of ores comprised within a compass of five feet. On the south side of the creek there are four veins of ore comprised within a compass of seven feet, one of the veins being nearly pure copper pyrites. At an altitude of 250 and 700 feet above the creek the lode has been opened; also 2000 feet distance from the creek on the south side, and at several places on the north side. Regarding the prospects of the lode as a mining venture, I may state I consider it presents inducements for its further exploration. The outcrop of the lode has been traced within and beyond the Company's boundaries a great distance, shewing the metalliferous character of the formation to be persistent. At the same time it possesses the advantage of being prominent to some extent on the north side and considerably so on the south side, where it extends in length half a mile—the hill attaining in that distance a height of 700 feet, thus affording great facilities for carrying on operations by tunnels, and there is besides water power to any requisite extent available for machinery."

Mr. Mundy, the mining engineer who came from Victoria specially to make the report from which these quotations are taken, estimates that the lode will produce three and a-half tons of ore to the fathom. Although that is a very large product, as will be presently shown by comparison with other copper lodes, it is no less than six tons short of what it was represented to be capable of producing; hence Mr. Mundy's report with its results.

Mr. Hackett, the mining engineer who previously reported on the lode, estimated it to produce five and a-half tons per fathom.

In the Official Handbook of New Zealand, and in other works published by the Government for general information, the product of ore from the lode is estimated to be over 10 tons per fathom. When the mine fell into the hands of the present owners the above data was accepted and reiterated by them. Regarding the quality of the ore there are also differences of opinion, but that is accounted for by the fact that there are various qualities of ore in the lode. It will be seen that Mr. Mundy states that some of the veins are nearly pure copper pyrites. Mr. Hackett gives the average at 12 per cent. Professor Ulrich gave a sample of the ore to Professor Black, who reported as follows :—"This is a sample of copper pyrites ranging from 5 per cent, to 19 per cent, of copper. The qualitive analysis shows that gold is present in a very marked quantity, and recommends that a larger quantity should be assayed."

Between the years 1864 and 1875, Dr. Hector analysed 9 samples of the ore with the following percentages :—11.57; 25.60; 24; 24; 27.5; 58.20; 11.57; 25.60; 15.10; or an average of over 24 per cent.

A quantity of ore assayed by Mr J. B. Bradshaw gave from 22 to 24per cent.

A sample of the ore presented to the New Zealand Exhibition by Mr Julius Vogel, and examined by Mr Skey, see juror's report page 406, yielded 24 per cent.

Another sample presented by Mr V. Pyke gave from 24 to 30 per cent. In the same report, page 405, the following occurs :—A number of samples of ore from the Moke Creek copper mine, shows it (the ore) to be a double sulphide of copper and iron. Its colour is yellow on a fracture, but acquires a deep tinge upon exposure. Prom a great number of specimens of this ore which have been analysed, it has been ascertained that the per centages of copper in this ore varies from 11 to 25 per cent. In the Cornwall copper mines, this kind of ore is frequently worked at 4 per cent. The average of the sales for the last quarter shows an average produce of 6 per cent.

At the Exhibition held in Dunedin last year, blocks of ore from this mine were exhibited by the present owners. They were also analysed by Professor Black with the same result as before. It is sometimes said that the analysis of samples cannot be relied upon. But that is a mistake. It is most reliable provided a series of tests of the various qualities of the ore found in the lode be made. In the case of the Waitahuna mine for instance, Professor Black analysed a great many samples, and before the ten tons of ore were sent to be smelted, he gave it as his opinion that it would yield, allowing for loss and the small quantity, 11 per cent. The result of the smelting of the ten tons was exactly what he predicted. But experts such as Professor Ulrich can tell within a percentage of two simply by looking at a sample of copper pyrites. A few months back Professor Ulrich examined 15 bags of ore from the Moke Creek and estimated it to contain from 15 to 20 per cent. Mr J. E. Wren, engineer to the Great Cobar Mine, N.S.W., gave the same opinion. It will therefore be seen that without actually smelting a very large quantity of ore, no more page 18 satisfactory data can be got. When the tests made in England, Victoria, New South Wales, and New Zealand give approximately the same average, the value of the ore may be relied upon.

The average of the different estimates of the quantity of ore in the Moke Creek lode is 6¼ tons to the fathom. And the average of 30 different assays and analyses show the ore to contain 18 per cent, of metallic copper.

The annual product of the copper mines of Austria is over 90,000 tons of ore, average 3 per cent.; see Mining Journal, September, 1877. Sweden averages 4 per cent.; see Whitney's Metallic Wealth. France averages per cent.; see Cailioux Mines Metalliques de la France. The British Isles for their size are the greatest copper producing countries in the world. There are 101 copper mines yielding £400,000 worth of copper. Cornwall alone had 65 mines yielding 43,000 tons of ore, averaging 6¾ per cent.; see Hank's Mineral Statistics of Great Britain. South American mines yield 113/8 percent.; see Henwood's Metalliferous Deposits. The mines of South Australia, including the celebrated Burra Burra, average 15 per cent. The Great Cobar copper mine in N.S.W., averages 11 per cent.

Regarding the product of copper lodes generally, we have seen by the statistics quoted that the average value of copper ore mined in England is 6¾ per cent. A lode, such as the Moke Creek, yielding the lowest estimate made, viz., 3½ tons per fathom of 18 per cent, ore, is of more value than a lode giving 15 tons to the fathom of 5 per cent. ore. In England a copper lode giving 2 tons to the fathom of 10 per cent, ore is good property, even when the ore has to be raised from great depths, entailing great expense for heavy machinery for pumping, &c.

The cost of smelting copper ore ranges from £4 to £6 per ton in Europe, and from £6 to £12 in the colonies, according to the quality of the ore and the facilities for getting fuel, &c.

From the foregoing statistics it will be seen that the ore from Moke Creek is of unusually good quality. There being railway communication with the coast, fuel and lime abundant, it is not surprising that Professor Ulrich winds up his reference to the lode in these words :—"I do not see why this lode should not pay for working, and it seeems strange that it should have been, and for so long, neglected." At the time Professor Ulrich penned that paragraph there was no railway connection.

Some people fancy that if we export large quantities of copper ore the price will be affected. It must be remembered that as the lodes in one part of the world are being opened lodes in the older countries are being exhausted, and the consumption of copper is so large that it is not easily affected. The value of copper used in Great Britain in 1857 was L2,815,831; see McCulloch's Dictionary, page 409. Some lodes give enormous yields. A copper mine at Fohlum, Sweden, has been worked for 1000 years, and has given as much as 35,700 tons in a single year.

The Burra Burra, from 1850 to 1860, turned out 92,000 tons of copper, or over L7,000,000 worth, a fifth of which went in dividends. The Moonta Mine, near Adelaide, has divided over L1,800,000 in dividends, showing a very large output of ore. The Great Cobar mine, N.S.W., has only been opened four years, and up to June 26, 1880, had yielded 37,722 tons of ore, smelted 34,800 tons, getting from that 4,700 page 19 tons of marketable metal. In 1859 New South Wales only exported L500 worth of copper; in 1879 the total had reached the respectable figure of L2,494,437, and this increase was made notwithstanding the fact that copper had reached during that period the lowest price on record; see Mining Journal.

Davies, in his volume on Metalliferous Mining, published in 1880, says at page 139 :—"On Parry's Mountain, near the town of Amlwch in Wales, many years ago, Alexander Frazer, a mining adventurer from Scotland, found traces of copper, and making that locality the scene of his explorations, he discovered a lode, the profits from which, up to the end of 1876, were no less than L7,000,000. The district is now the most important for copper mining in Wales."

I have mentioned these facts to show the immense consumption of copper.

Regarding the other copper lode in the Wakatipu district, it was only opened a few months ago. It is in the same strata and distant only 400 yards from, and running parallel with, the Moke Creek lode. The lode crops out in the form of gossan near the Creek, and at an elevation of 600 feet, and a quarter of a mile further south it also crops out. A shaft has been put down 15 feet, which yielded over 10 tons of ore, worth about 15 or 16 per cent. The shaft is the width of the lode, about three feet, and five feet long.

Mr. Mundy, when reporting on the Moke lode, examined this also, was much pleased with its appearance, and recommended that the shaft should be continued down on the underlay.