GOLD IN N.Z. RIVER BEDS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4930, 25 January 1926, Page 4

GOLD IN N.Z. RIVER BEDS

OTAGO NUGGETS AT EXHIBITION.

DREDGING TO BE RESUMED.

To the collection of samples of alluvial gold from .the goldfields of Otago now on view in the Otago Court .at the Exhibition twelve nuggets, some weighing up to two and a half ounces, have just been added. These nuggets were obtained from workings in the bed of the Shotover River from a claim at “The Branches,” Upper Shotover. For many miles .the bed of this river is still in its virgin state, owing •to the impossibility of working certain reaches by any means available in .the pas.t. An inspection of these nuggets will enable some idea to be formed of the extent of .the wealth which lies buried in the river bed. In the winter of 1863, when, after prolonged -and severe frosts, the rivers, had fallen to the lowest level on record, a party called Hunter Bros., by means of wing-damming in the bed of the river,' took out .three cubic yards ol the bottom wash, which yielded 514 ounces of gold, nearly all nuggets. In the month of June in the same year another party at work lower.down obtained over 1001 b weight of gold from their cl|aim. In many places where it was possible to confine the water to one side and then ,to the other by means, of wing-dams, the bottom has been cleaned up, but ip the gorges, where the stream was rapid and the bottom wash was overlain by large flags of schist rock, the gold still remains.

A suction dredge of the latest type, embodying some features which are nejv, and operated by electricity, in now being erected on a, claim in the vicinity of Deep Creek, on the road from Queenstown to Skippers. Lower down the river other parties are carrying on prospecting operations to ascertain the depth and nature of the ground before deciding upon the means to be adopted for working.