WEST COAST MINING NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 November 1917, Page 1

WEST COAST MINING NEWS.

A NEW RICH GOLD REEF

A T TOT AI! A

(Comimuiicatccl) -y Ever *,4iiicc lilie discovery -the year IDI4, of the gold reel's oil tin .southern slope of Mount Greenland South Westland, private - enterprise ii the way of small company named tin Mount Greenland G.M. Coy., ha? worked away quietly driving in two different levels on their solid 11ft. reel at a depth of 200 ft. a distance of about. 360 ft and cutting through stone yielded per crushing from a five stum per battery, gold worth from £6 to £2O to tlio ton. Previous to the erection of their battery, the Company, the capital of which is only some £5,000 were encouraged by assays from, Dr. Melanrin, Government assnver, Wellington, Professor Waters, of Dunedin, and other noted assayers, giving as high as £833, £424, £154, £79, to the ton from ordinary clean quartz, and from which the ore is being treated by ordinary plate amalgamation and winning the greater amount oi gold contained. A large body of stone, all of which is above the low level, is now i n sight, and Hn several rich shoots from the surface to the lo\y drive some phono mi nally rich stone could he Inoken out at any time, hut so far tinsmall company contents itself witi breaking out only the ordinary stuff wh'ich has however yielded from about 400 tons for over £2,881 of gold and at a cost- of about £1 per ton for troutine!}) tv Tbe Company which is now increasing its Diant will he 'doubling Its output after" Chdistimas. Meanwhile other parties are being attracted to this locality which is about ten miles south of ifioss and 180 feet above sea level and the capital is flowing from dift’erents parts to prospect the reef's which have been traced for over three miles and already such ventures as “The Mac Kay, G.M.C.,” “The Joan,” and “The Mount Greenland No 2," are “now in the press and shortly to appear.” Just as 1 mu closing gold hearing reefs in the “Joan” and in the “McKay,” have just been discovered outcropping, so that vigorous prospecting will now he carried on after the Christmas holidays: Referring to this auriferous mountain Mount Greenland, the local newspaper, of 1887, said: “Mount Greenland, an isolated mountain rising 2,970 ft. above sea-level -and almost imlmedHately overlooking Rosstown, appears to he another Mont. D’O-R as it is a mountain made of auriferous gravels and aurifeious quartz reefs, the latter of which will astonish some plucky prospectors. "Formerly this mountain must have been much higher ,as the rich auriferous gravels and (quart,z specimens found down in the lower country round about the foot of the mountain appear to be of tbe same formnion as thse higher up. All along the-south-westei’n slopes of the lone mountain which is intersected by scores of highly auriferous creeks were mined with success in the long ago. Thousands of gold,minors won thousands of ounces (£4-an-ounce, from the surfaces: and roelty beds of those creeks, and in many instances where the alluvial workings laid bare the sln.to rock of those creek beds likely-looking quartz reefs outcropped, and from vhicjh specimens of gold had become broken by the force of the winter torrents. But although those brave diggers, when coming to the early, town of Ross laden with their well-filled “shammies” of gold, to knock down their week’s gold at the Casinos and Alhambra Palaces, under the fascinating smile of the fair Hebe behind gorgeous bars, used between longsleevcrs, to talk darkly of some day when those reefs would be laid bare, so absorbed were those miners in gold-getting from tbe aurifeious places in those early days (gold diggers working alluvial diggings. most of their wild time, never, curiously enough dreamt- of touching any quartz measure, no matter how tempting they appeared) and no attempt was made to test or dev elope any reef. And whilst on the subject of the reefs here another party encouraged by tbe news of the rich find on the Mount Greeland, have taken up the old Donnel.v’s Creek Quartz claim with a view of vigorously prospecting - the measure which after yielding dining the. eighties as: much as £6 to the ton of gold, became abandoned owing to lack”of capital. But tile leader although small yet peeps out in places, and it is hoped may dovelope into a payable venture.

The old Mont D’Or G.M. Coy. (an alluvial venture) after paying its shareholders- £150,000 ceased operations because- the company had washed, per powerful hydraulic, giant nozzle the whole made mountain away. Yet the Company which had a powerful water race at a high altitude, may spring once more into life to work another 'made 'mountain of auriferous wash existing on the eastern side of the Jones Creek once so famed for placer gold in the halcyon days of the sixties, when diggers were getting sndi quantities oi the. precious yellow metal that thej began to thing .gold would lose its intrinsic value.

A matter of considerable moment to gold diggers is a block of highly auriferous country Icing between the Totara liver a. mile northwards of the Ross Borough, and Lake Mahinapua some nine miles further on. In the year 1901, this flat hounded .by the ocean beach and Ross-Hokitika railway, yield ed rich gold to depth varying from 3ft. to twelve hut had to be abandoned owing to the water above which it lay at only some 3ft. Subsequently the area, was bored in places giving highly payable gold to depths of 30 ft. and attempts were made to float capital for dredging it, but owing to the facts of the whole dredging boom collapsing nothing further was done until some ten years when a party knowing of

the richness of about 30 acres of lagoons known then as “The Lucy Gap” applied for the area and was granted by the Warden, bis party intending to put a dredging plant on. But the area, mineral rights and all lmd been previously sold to a sawmilling company so the party, was ignominously turned off and told lie would have to pay a royalty to the owner of wliat was in 1902 a gazetted goldfield. Will that late giant.' intellect (King Dick Seddon) turn in his

grave when the news reaches him in the dim 'Beyond? T wonder. Of course the diggers were in earnest ahout it they en n easily get all mineral rghts so wrested reinstated to tincountry by petitioning the Minister for Minos who can pass an enabling Act, SAWMILLS, LIME-BURNING AND COW-SPANKING. In place of tbe whirl of the wind* las, the ring of the pick, the intermittent blasting shots of the dynamite on boulders too large for the tailraces of the sluicing claims, the roar of the railway train the biz-z-z-a-h of tile sawmills the sullen fires of tbe limekilns, and the songs of the milk maid and the shouts of the cow-puneh-ers whilst the lowing kino goes slowly o’er the lea will soon harmonise the atmosphere of Ross and surrounding districts. For farm and station, huge butter and cheese factories and creamer ii-s are springing up everywhere huge sawmill companies arc now preparing to demolish the forests, so is another for lime-burning the mountain of limestones overlooking the township to the iJorth which once again after its lengthy sloop, Ross may awaken io renewed activity.

The lands for pastoral and agricultural purposes, in many places in South Westland is quite as good as that of other parts of the North Island where dairy farming and cattle fattening have become so successful and many farmers notably down at Hari Hari, are doing vey well. Other hush lands nearer Ross Town, would if cleared easily fatten two sheep to the acre. I note that the Government have set aside blocks of rolling country lightly-hush-clad, along the road to the new reefs for returned soldiers, but generally speaking, it appears to be of poorer quality and yet wlien the sun gets into it there is no telling till then what effect the warmth may produce . Ross Nov., 26th., 1917.