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The Mining Journal - 1879

Page 100

British Dividend Mines

At the present time these (among public mines) are not very plentiful, and may be numbered thus: -- Lead: Van, Great Laxey, Roman Gravels, North Hendre -- Tin: Dolcoath, South Condurrow, South Frances, Wheal Peevor -- Copper: South Caradon, West Tolgus, Mellanear. In 1855 54 British mines paid dividends of £340,714-3-4d. Eleven foreign mines paid £209,320. Five Welsh paid £7535. One Scotch, £117-18-0d. Two Isle of Man, £9960 (of which Great Laxey paid £1000). Three Irish mines, £29,660. Making a grand total for a year of £597,306-3-4d. In 11 years up to 1855 British mines had paid in dividends £2,834,802. A strange contrast with the present.

Page 110

Mellanear Copper -- John Gilbert, Jan 1: The lode in the 30, west of Gundry's shaft, is 3ft wide, and worth 1 ton of copper ore per fathom. The lode in the 40, west of shaft, is 2ft wide, and still producing 1/2 ton of ore per fathom. The lode in the 30, driving east from the top of the rise, to communicate with the 30, west of Gundry's shaft, is 3ft wide, and worth 1½ ton of ore per fathom. The lode in the 50 fm level, west of shaft, is 4ft wide, and worth 2 tons of ore per fathom. The lode in the 60, west of shaft, is 4ft wide, and worth 2 tons of ore per fathom. The winze in the bottom of this level is worth 2 tons of ore per fathom. The lode in the 70, west of shaft, is 5ft wide, worth fully 3 tons of ore per fathom. The rise in the back of this level, west of shaft, will produce 3½ tons of ore per fathom. The lode in the 80, west of the shaft, is 5ft wide, and worth 3 tons of ore per fathom. The lode in the 90, west of shaft, is 4ft wide, worth 2 tons of ore per fathom, and looking very promising for further improvement. The lode in the winze in the bottom of this level, east of shaft, is worth 2 tons of ore per fathom. The lode in the 100, west of the shaft, is 6ft wide, and producing some saving work for copper and blende. The lode in the 100, east of the shaft, is 3ft wide, and worth 1½ ton of ore per fathom. We have cut a sparry crossing in the 100, west of skip-shaft, which has disordered the lode for the present, but we expect it will improve again soon, as it is getting just under where the lode made productive in the level above. From near this crossing we have broken some splendid stones of tin ore. There is no change in the ground in the 67 cross-cut, south of the main lode. I am pleased to say that the weather has improved, so that the masons are able to resume the building of the new crusher-house, and the plastering of the count-house, and that all our surface operations are going on very satisfactorily. The late floods have increased the water underground, so that the old engine is now doing 71/2 strokes per minute, and Gundry's engine nearly 4 strokes per minute, but the engines and pitwork are in good working order, and keeping the water with the greatest ease.

Page136

Copper Ores, Sampled Dec. 18, and sold at Tabb‘s Hotel, Redruth, Jan 2

Total Produce

Last Sale

Page 139

As was to have been anticipated, there has been a serious falling off in the amount of copper returned, and this although a new mine - Mellanear - has entered the Dividend List. In 1875 the copper ores sold at the Cornish Ticketing amounted to 57,985 tons, realising £25,418 (?). In 1876 the total had fallen to 53,791 tons, realising £213,336. But 1878 could muster no more than 47,591 tons, which brought in but £168,257 - a falling of in one twelve months of 6,200 tons of ore, and £45,079. The copper mining of the West has, therefore, been perilously near extinction, and has now dwindled to a miserable shadow of what it was barely a generation HQO.

Page 140

There were absolutely 13 dividend mines in 1878 - the same number as in 1876, only two less than in 1877, and but four behind 1874. There is, however, a falling off in the dividends so far as their amount is concerned compared with either of these years. In the review of last year we were unable to state the exact total divided on account of the uncertainty attaching to the declarations in Holmbush and Wheal Newton, the estimated dividends in which were, as we anticipated, largely in excess of the actual percentage on the real capital. Thus the true gross total of the dividends declared in 1877 was £49,194, against £40,871 in the previous year: 1878 is considerably behind 1877, but still it compares not unsatisfactorily with 1876. The figures of publicly announced dividends are:-

Total £34,017

Of these mines seven have paid dividends continuously from 1876 - Dolcoath, East Pool, Glasgow Caradon, South Caradon, South Condurrow, West Tolgus and Wheal Eliza. North Busy and West Chiverton paid dividends in 1877. Of the other four West Seton and South Frances re-entered the Dividend List in the past year; and Mellanear and Peevor appeared therein for the first time. At present West Seton and West Chiverton have again suspended dividends. In comparing the list above given with the dividend mines in 1877 we miss Devon Great Consols, Holmbush, Pedn-an- Drea, Tincroft, Wheal Prussia, and Wheal Newton. At the present moment, therefore, Devon does not contain a single dividend mine, and Cornwall but a dozen. A moderate improvement only in the standard would, however, at once treble that number.