RICH GOLD STRUCK

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 32306, 30 August 1943, Page 3

RICH GOLD STRUCK

DISCOVERY IN AUSTRALIA BY AMERICAN SOLDIER What may prove to be one of the richest lodes ever found in Australia is reported in a message from Sydney, which states that an American, “Bonanza Bill” Houghton, of California. who was previously a gold-miner, has found ore said to be worth £5OOO a ton.

Two American Army officers, who were formerly |issayers, estimated the value of the samples, which were from an undisclosed location. Metallurgists are amazed at the estimated richness of the deposits, which would mean that the ore must bear 625 ounces of gold to the ton.

Extraordinary high values, such as that reported from Sydney, signify a concentration of gold in one small spot. Such rich pockets, known as bonanzas, were small in extent, and. according to mining authorities, usually assayed at from loz to 6oz to the lib. In the Thames goldfield, gold had been discovered in small areas which would have worked out at possibly 2000 oz to the ton if there had been enough of it. For instance, in the Waiotahi mine, worked between 1905 and 1908. the gold produced in a patch roughly 100 ft long, 30ft wide and sft high, would, on to-day’s values, be

worth £1.500.000. About 9 tons of gold in a single year were secured from the Caledonia mine at Thames., Free gold of the bonanza type had often been found at the junction of reefs.