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mine, was extended to a point directly under the old No. 6 level, and a vertical shaft was raised through from one level to the other, a distance of 460 ft. This shaft was completed in 1900. During the progress of raising it, chambers were cut for Nos. 7, 8, and 9 levels, and drives were rapidly put out from these, stoping being started in this lower part of the mines in November of the same year. In the following year, 1901, the shaft was sunk from No. 10 to No. 11 level, and each succeeding year a further level was opened till No. 14 was reached. In all these levels the Ajax and Royal shoots were worked, but as the stone was not wide it was soon beaten out from level to level. No. 14 level, 1,673 ft. below the collar of the Ajax shaft, did not open out at all well, comparatively little stone being met with; but it was driven to the northern end of the Ajax shoot, from which point an incline shaft was sunk, and No. 15 level, the lowest in the mine, opened from it. This level did not show much more quartz than No. 14; and in August, 1907, the company decided to let the whole mine on tribute to a party consisting of Nicholas Lawn, John Oats, and others. This party then worked the mine till 1910, stoping out both shoots of stone from Nos. 14 and 15 levels, and mining a small tonnage from other parts of the workings. In all they crushed 7,856 tons for a yield of 6,543 oz. 6 dwt. gold. For the entire period during which the Consolidated Goldfields Company operated the mine it crushed approximately 92,287 tons of quartz for a return of 46,425 oz. 6 dwt. gold, valued at £183,079 17s. 7d.; but the amount paid in dividends is not available. At the same time the company operated the mine it also worked the Energetic - Wealth of Nations Mine, and during the period paid £178,214 14s. 6d. in dividends. A goodly part of this may have come from the Golden Fleece property, but what the proportion was there is now no means of telling.
For the whole period the group of mines comprising the Ajax, Royal, and Golden Fleece were worked the stone crushed amounted, as closely as can now be determined, to 134,477 tons, which yielded 89,639 oz. 15 dwt. 19 gr. gold, valued at £369,215 1s. 6d., out of which, apart from any dividends that the Consolidated Company may have paid, the sum of £57,785 15s. 5d. was distributed to shareholders. Of this amount the Ajax Company paid £2,504, the Royal £231 15s. 5d., and the Golden Fleece Extended Company £55,000.
Gold-bearing quartz was still going underfoot on No. 15 level when work ceased, but the cost of sinking the shaft further in order to work it was considered too great to permit of following it down
Royal Mine.—This mine adjoined the Ajax on the south. A very large amount of work was done on it, including the driving of four adits; but the results were unsatisfactory. The shoot was located on each of the levels, but it was broken, narrow, and poor. All the stone in sight above the No. 4 adit was stoped out prior to 1895, either by the company or tributers, and the Consolidated Goldfields Company subsequently removed what little there was in the Royal ground from that level down. Very little definite information is available as to crushings or yields, and the figures relating to them cannot be segregated from those dealing with the Golden Fleece. It may be mentioned that the Royal Claim was first held by a company known as the Victory, formed in 1878, to which the Result and Royal Companies succeeded.
Venus Mine.—As previously stated, the shoot of ore in this mine lay somewhat to the west of those in the other claims referred to on Walshe’s line, but a study of the position convinced Dr. Henderson that it was
