SEARCH FOR GOLD

Hokitika Guardian, 17 December 1932, Page 6

SEARCH FOR GOLD

ON GREAT BARRIER ISLAND. INVESTIGATION NOW BEING MADE. AUCKLAND, December 13. An interesting development is taking place on the old mining field of Great Barrier Island, where too reef systems are being examined in the light of modern Knowledge and viewed at a totally different angle from the practice or the early days. At one period there was very considerable activity on the Great Barrier. Various reef systems were wonted, hut in those days the percentage of extraction was never higher than 45 and was frequently below 35, so that, in cne instance alone, a fortune was taken in after years out of the tailings Lt't by one of the concerns. Modern mining methods call lor a uniform extraction of up to 08 per cent and over. Nowadays large projects are wanted. Treatment plants me designed on highly technical lines with a view to many years of working of large bodies of ore at a low percentage of cost. Low grade can now be handled at profit where as in years gone by it cculdnot be touched. This is the e;;son for the investigation proceeding at the Great Barrier. Alining engineers, surveyors, geologists and prospectors have been travelling to and fro since last autumn plotting out the reef systems, sampling the ore over a wide extent of country and packing o.ut parcels for

assay. As a result the Ahumata syndicate, composed of Auckland business and professional men, has taken mining privileges over an area of about (100 aces. It was early recognised by the engineers that to handle th:s reef., system would require tlui most modern methods, necessitating the employment of large capital. Certain London interest were consulted and a set table of geological data, mining details, and reef tests and measurements was indicated by the English engineers as a necessary preliminary. This information is new being compiled. It has involved over six months of exploration work and the syndicate is at present employing an engineer and a. number of miners -tracing the reefs, clearing old drives and generally preparing a complete plan of the -field on the lines required to interest oversea capital.

At the present juncture little more can be said than that the engineers and geologists are satisfied that there are possibilities in the project. The lona reef, the mother lode, has beentraced for about a mile, cut' at! different levels and investigated sufficiently 7 to justify the report that an ore body 7 a mile long, of an average width of at least 1-5 feet and a known depth of 400 feet, has been disclosed. In places the reef has been measured; to a width of 00 feet and in other levels' to 28 feet. A very considerable amount cf sampling has been done and consistently good averages are giving every encouragement. A good deal of work h;;s also been done on what is known, as the Barrier Reef.