MINING.

Kumara Times, Issue 466, 25 March 1878, Page 2

MINING.

The following letter has been handed to the West Coast Times for publication. The writer is Mr J. Ellerv, at present manager for. the Taipo Quartz Company :—" Hearingthatpeveral prospecting parties are about going out, perhaps a few remarks on the different rivers on the Coast up which I have travelled, may not be withi.ut value. They all have the same appearance about the same distance inland, according to the angle the main ranges run with the coast line. Consequently the further you go south the nearer the sea you strike the same gold-bearing belt. Coming overland from the Haast river to Bruce Bay, there are about ' twenty miles of slate ranges, with quartz leaders running through them. [ I have seen splendid specimens which i were found in Cook's river. About eight miles up the Waikupakup, and the same distance up the Omaru, there are quartz reefs, and specimens have been found just under them in the creek. Up the Waiho I have seen reefs of the same character. A. little above the forks of the Okarito there are detached bouldeis with gold showing, in them. Then come the Rangitoto, Greenland, Totara, and Kokatahi ; and I have no doubt that the same belt continues up to this place (Taipo), and so on to Reefton, as the aelogical formation is the same all the way through. 1 have especially noticed, with regard to the Taipo, that the predominating r.-ck in the creek mixed with the layers of wash-dirt, is the same as lies each side of the quartz reef's containing the "old. There are six or seven distinct lines of reef in the Taino district each of them carrying splendid gold, and I make no doudt that when they are properly developed this will become a great mining centre. Should the company think tit, they coald strike the reefs *t a depth of over three thousand feet by driving I from the level of the river ; that is, of j course, if the reefs run down as far. The length of the drive would be about I half a mile." I