May 2018 Project Martha – Historical & Archaeological Background 18 The Silverton mine, including the battery, was taken over by the Waihi-Silverton Company in 1895.80 The new company was floated in Glasgow by a former representative of the Cassel Company, Mr Melville, and by March 1895 the annual report of the Waihi goldfield noted: ‘The Silverton Company had a crushing-battery at the side of the Ohinemuri River, which formerly belonged to the Martha Company; but it is one of the very old type, and not suitable for dry-crushing. Mr. Adams, the manager, who was formerly at Waiorongomai, has now received instructions to prepare plans and specifications and call tenders for a reduction plant of twenty heads of stamps, together with complete cyanide plant, and tables covered with copper-plates coated with quicksilver. An engine and pumping plant is also to be erected; but the present shaft is too small for winding and pumping, and commencement will be made to enlarge it as soon as the water is pumped out. Recently the company has purchased the engine and boiler which formerly belonged to the Red Mercury Company at Kuaotunu, and intend to use it for pumping.’81 The Silverton Battery was subsequently refurbished and the power supply upgraded.82 Cyanide vats made of steel plates were also constructed at the site and the upgraded 40 stamp battery was described by the Auckland Star as ‘perhaps the most important development in mining which has taken place in the past twelve months in the Upper Thames’.83 Expansion of the Waihi mines continued from the mid-1890s (Figure 10 to Figure 11). In 1894/1895 the Union-Waihi Gold Mining Company, a subsidiary of the Waihi Gold and Silver Mining Company, was formed to mine the Union-Rosemont-Amaranth section.84 The Union-Waihi Company was restructured in 1895, with 100,000 shares held by the Waihi Company and 1250 shares by the Cassel Company for the use of the cyanide process.85 The newly formed company held a total area of 346 acres, including the Amaranth, Rosemont, Golden Run, and Union Special claims.86 Mining had commenced at Union Hill by 1896, although the company was not permitted to use the nearby Waihi Battery for processing.87 To the east of Union Hill, mining on Gladstone Hill (NZAA T13/821) was steadily advanced. Gladstone Mine was mentioned in parliamentary papers from 1891/1892 and was noted to contain 30 acres, owned by Wood and party, through which a prospecting drive had been cut ‘and a reef cut 7ft in thickness, the value of which has not been ascertained’.88 By 1894 the ownership of the mine had been transferred to H. Brett and party and it was stated that ‘very little prospecting was done during the year, and the licensed holding is to be forfeited’.89 A new company, known as the Waihi Gladstone Company, was set up in 1896 to work the Gladstone, Joker and Salisbury claims with a 80 Lens 2017, p.56. 81 AJHR 1895 C-03, p.64. 82 Lens 2017, p.4. 83 AJHR 1896 C-03, p.70; Auckland Star¸ 7 April 1896, p.5. 84 Clough 2004, p.14; McAra 1988, p.51. 85 Clough 2004, p.14; McAra 1988, p.97. 86 Lens 2017, p.63. 87 Ibid. 88 AJHR 1892 C-03A, p.15. 89 AJHR 1894 C-03A, p.13.
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