GOLD IN NORTH WALES

Hokitika Guardian, 16 February 1931, Page 3

GOLD IN NORTH WALES

(;H)V)iJ.INMJiXT INQUIRY. liminent, mining engineers have d"-c-liirod tlmt there s.Li 11 exists in North Wales an area of 2*>() square miles which has as good a showing ol gold for the amount of work done as an.v similar area. The >St. David mines in Merionethshire were worked up to J')l4, and wedding rings for the Queen Princess Mary, and the Duchess ol York were made from gold extracted there. Several tons ol ore and gold quartz from Mawddach Valley have recently been sent to London to be assayed. Considerable interest, therefore, attaches to a Government' inquiry into conditions and prospects of gold-min-ing in North Wales, which is to be opened at. Dolgelly this month by Professor Henry Louis, ot Newcastle, president of the Iron and Steel Institute. The Merionethshire County Council and other local authorities presented a memorial to Mr J. H. Thomas (then Lord Privy Seal) drawing attention to the depressed Welsh mining industry, and praying foi a Government inquiry into the prospect of gold-mining development. “Wo maintain.” stated the memorialists “that the North Wales goldfield has been exploited but not explored. Tn ■*lie absence of reliable records ol the yield of free gold which is got from the impregnated quartz, the pre-

cise value of the wealth mined can m ver be ascertained.” The memoi'anuum claimed to have established that, “wheie hones} effort at legitimate mining Inns been under,taken, the percentage of success is higher than in any goldfield o‘ like character.” Gold-mining experts, engineers and local author'll ies have ore. pared evidence for the 'coining inquiry. The Dolgelly mines have been worked almost continually since 18.11, and Government returns from. 1888 |e 1911 show til'd nearly 390.900 tons o‘‘ ore Were mined and nulled, from w oT KIOTO') ounces of pure gold were re covered, valued at £308.817.