Gold Round Egmont

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 908, 27 February 1930, Page 10

Gold Round Egmont

MEN TAKE MINERS’ RIGHTS Special to THE SUN NEW PLYMOUTH, Today. THE gold-seeking fever lias gripped three Taranaki men. The secret has been revealed by the curiosity of the Bgmont County Council clerk who, on receiving a 15s voucher inscribed “goldfields’ revenue,” inquired as to its source. It was the council’s share of fees paid for miners rights, he was informed.

A veteran prospector says there is undoubtedly gold there, but he questions whether it can be located in payable quantities. In two streams entering the Taranaki bight, the old prospector says he has found pieces of quartz, containing promising evidence of gold, and he considers he knows where to locate the reef whence it came. In the bed of the river he believes an outcrop of gold-bearing quartz will be exposed at a point where the river cuts swiftly and deeply through a steep and narrow gorge, exposing over 100 ft of rock formation. Alluvial gold also exists on the southern side of the mountain, particularly in different altered parts, and traces of the same metal and lodes have been discovered on the northern side, the old-timer says. He also asserts that the lower slopes of the southern side of the mountain have not been extensively geologically surveyed. Thirty years ago speculation was rife in South Taranaki concerning spirals of smoke visible high up on the moutain slopes, probably opposite Auroa. The general belief was that parties were operating whisky stills. “It was gold they were after,” the veteran declares, and supports his assertion with the statement that he recently discovered tangible evidence of operations in dense bush, in probably the most remote part of the mountain- —a bottle containing a note crumpled to fragments, and a cleft stake with a tin arrow, pointing to a spot in the steep gorge 200 or 300 ft away below the perpendicular sides. One of the earliest attempts to locate payable deposits of gold was that made by the late Mr. Robert C. Hughes in conjunction with Messrs. Hector McLean, Tom McGuinness and Olsen between 186 S and 1871 at Boar’s Head Creak off the Timaru stream in the Kaitake or Patua range upon property, at one time owned by the

late Mr. Thomas Harrison, an old military settler. These efforts are recalled by a son of the original prospector, Mr. R. C. Hughes of New Plymouth. His father with others opened the Perseverance battery between 1868 and 1870, a squash specimen of rock, very like that at Thames, was sent to the Thames mine for assay, and was favourably reported upon. Besides gold, the quartz contained iron pyrites. Considerable stamping was done under the supervision of Mr. Clarence Reynolds, who had had mining experience in Victoria. The first test however, proved a failure, and the committee ceased operations soon after. QUARTZ CLIFFS In the same locality as Boar’s Head Creek, round about the Kaitake range, there are cliffs of quartz ranging in colour from cream to blue. Deposits of iron ore, ochre, free sulphur, copper and silver, barite graphite and magnetite are to be found in quantities small and large. In fact silver has been found to exist in greater quantity in the same lode as gold and copper. Peculiar magnetic influences exist affecting compass bearings as much as 20 and 30 degrees east or west of north. The cause is said to be the prevalence of magnetite in the andesite rocks. Six or more geologists have examined several sites in the Kaitake and Pouakai ranges with a view to ascertaining gold prospects. Mr. P. G. Morgan, present director of the Geological department, wrote of prospects in the Kaitake range: “Surface prospecting, in my opinion, is utterly hopeless. The depths are unknown and possibly may contain valuable ores, for outcrops of quartz or silicified rock are numerous” In any case, Taranaki has a new industry, even though it be on a small scale —and possibilities!