A NEW GOLDFIELD.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXII, Issue 42760, 12 August 1905, Page 2

A NEW GOLDFIELD.

A POSSIBLE BOOM IN SOUTH AMERICA. From the earliest times men have searched watercourses for traces of gold sunk by its own weight to the riverbed. Jason’s fleece was probably only a sheep-skin fastened in the current of the Phasis until the yellow grains gleamed thick among the wool; and die golden sands of the Pactolus existed not only in popular'’imagination but actually made Lydia a wealthy country. In recent years we have c mae to ‘liink of gold as having to be extracted by expensive and complicated processes from quartz, yetallthe time there lies deep beneath the surface of a huudred rivers such wealth as a millionaire would not despise. Repeated failures to reach the treasure have made men si >w iu thro we ing good money after bad, and it is therefore the more surprising to learn that Buenos Ayres may possibly before many years are over become to South America what Johannesburg is to the Transvaal. And this time the “ boom ” when it comes will be in “ dredging” shares. This at any rate is the firmly expressed belief of the Buenos Ayres Herald, which supports its opinion by definite statements as bo results already obtained by various companies work* ing on South American rivers with i comparatively rough machinery. The principal groups of companies already floated and at work, us given by the *• Herald ” are:—The San Juan de Oro in Bolivia, the Matto Grosso (Brazil), tha Sutphen (Chili), the Orosmayo (Argentina), and the Rio Oscar (Chili), Some of these companies are at present doing little more than prospecting work, while others have recovered gold in paying quantities, with every hope of steadily increasing their output. Up to the present the best re suit has been 50oz. of standard gold for

ihirty hour’s work, and trail b roh.iFs on several of the properties hive \ yielded very flattering reports from time to time..

Hitherto the financial support has been mainly local, with Buenos Ayres as the centre of interest, but if,the latest report is to be trusted—and it is , given on good authority—it will not t>e long before London wakes up to the possibility of finding imthe rivers of South America a considerable addition to the world’s gold supply. The ? Matfco Grosso Company, at any rate, nas disposed of pait of its property to a London syndicate, and negotiations are said to be in progress for the transference of further rights in this and other companies to English capitalists. Manchester, however, seems to be lit Last ae adventurous as London in the ma t«r; for the first Rio San Juan de Oro Company, Ltd. (Manchester), with a capital of £70,000 fully paid up, is starling work with good prospects, while the dial borings of other companies are satisfactory en >ugh, assumnig, of course, that they have been honestly curried out, to tempt the most timid investor to risk his money. "Considering that the expenses of recovering gold by dredging are small as compared with mining, and the subsequent crushing and amalgamating, the fact that six boring sites in one property gave an average of 6s 3d (gold)i per cubic yard seems to show beyond doubt the existence of gold in paying quantities. Whether there will be a really big boom in these shares it is not easy for outsiders to say. But that there is going to be a considerable boom in South America is pretty certain. The shares of one of the Chili companies have already reached 400 per cent., premium, New York, not to be out of the running, has floated a oampany with the capital of JjQQQ.QCQdoIs. to dredge a Brazilian river bearing the delightful but embracing name of Tequitinhonha. Further information from the Argentine may prove exiciiing; meanwhile the mere chance of a “ boom ” in any direction is of interest to a good many people both here, and in Eng* ‘ land,.