COROMANDEL GOLD

Hokitika Guardian, 17 October 1932, Page 5

COROMANDEL GOLD

A GOOD FIND THE OLDEN DAYS REVIEWED. (Per Press Association — Copyright.) THAMES, October 15. In connection with the And of gold at Coronmandel, the manager of the bank said that the ore deposited appeared to be very rich in gold. The first discovery of gold in New Zealand was at Coromandel, in October, 1852, just over 80 years ago this month, and l the discoverer was Mr Charles Ring, a sawmiller, who had been a .prospector in California. Within a month there were 3000 men swarming over the hitherto quiet sawmilling district. Coromandel field produced £2,000,000 of wealth up to 1916. It was a field of some wonderfully rich bonanza patches, but unfortunately the rich ore did not live for any great distance and promising prospects too often petered out.

There is significance in the fact that the shaft of the Hauraki mine, 500 feet below sea level, had not reached sedimentary rock and had only just touched the primary andesites and nowhere on the field proper has that depth been reached that, mining men say, may prove to be another goldfield,

One mining engineer recently expressed this opinion: “We may he walking above a goldfield that would pay our National debt for all we know. We have never seen the sedimentaries and only once, in the deepest part of the Hauraki, which is down by the sea, have we seen primary andesites. The whole field' wants to be tested by diamond drilling. It is absurd to say the Coromandel field has teen worked out. It/ has only been scratched.”