Mixing constructions with infinite invariant measure and spectral multiplicities

We introduce high staircase infinite measure preserving transformations and prove that they are mixing under a restricted growth condition. This is used to (i) realize each subset $E\subset\Bbb N\cup\{\infty\}$ as the set of essential values of the multiplicity function for the Koopman operator of a mixing ergodic infinite measure preserving transformation, (ii) construct mixing power weakly mixing infinite measure preserving transformations, (iii) construct mixing Poissonian automorphisms with a simple spectrum, etc.