WAIHI GOLDFIELD.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5518, 30 December 1929, Page 1

WAIHI GOLDFIELD.

USE OF WAVE ORE-FINDER. A CORRESPONDENT’S VIEWS. Writing to the Waihi Telegraph on the question of further investigating the Waihi goldfield and the methods to be adopted, a correspondent (“Old Digger”) says :— "I was much interested in the news item in your mining column last Thursday stating that tests being made on the Bendigo goldfield (Victoria). with the Fraser-Hertzian wave ore-finder are reported to be proceeding satisfactorily, and, like many others concerned in the future of the gold-mining industry on the Waihi field, I should be glad to hear something more definite as to the instrument and the methods pursued in locating reefs with it. This is a matter worthy of the consideration of the company which it is proposed to form in Waihi for the purpose of further investigating the auriferous belt of country in and about the district in the hope of making fresh discoveries of suffiecint importance to warrant their development. As the paragraph published in the “Telegraph” does not give any information as to whether the experiments at Bendigo are being conducted by officers of the Victorian Mines Department or outside experts engaged by some company or syndicate interested in the mining industry I on that field, I would suggest that the provisional directors of the prospecting company being formed here should get into touch with Dr. Henderson, Director of Geological Survey to the New Zealand Government, in order to obtain his views on the merits of the Frazer-Hertzian ore-finder, the question as to whether, in his opinion, it might with advantage be tried on the Waihi field, and the approximate cost of testing the district with the instrument over a given period, say, six months. “As the leader of the band of experts in our Mines Department, Dr. Henderson is doubtless in touch with the latest scientific methods of locating ore bodies, geophysical and otherwise, and if he has any faith in the wave ore-finder in question the local company, probably in conjunction with the Mines Department, might take steps to have tests conducted about Waihi after Dr. Henderson and dur leading mining men have conferred on the spot and indicated the most likely area or areas for investigation. As we all know, the testing of reefs in these parts by shaft sinking, driving, and cross-cutting is a very costly process, and it is a difficult matter to raise the necessary capital for extensive operations unless speculators are first convinced that the prospects are distinctly good; but if the experts could show them that the reefs are there and contain values—and it is apparently claimed for the ore-finder that it can convey some indication as to the value of the quartz deposits—no difficulty would be experienced in getting the money for their development. As your mining editor and others have pointed out from time to time, it seems highly unlikely that the possibilities of the field have been exhausted by the operations carried out on the few hundreds of acres held by the Waihi and Grand Junction companies, and there is every reason to look forward hopefully to a revival of the mining industry in the Ohinemuri district if sufficient capital can be found to carry out investigations along the lines suggested by the proposed Waihi Prospecting and Mining Company.”