RICH QUARTZ CLAIMS.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 532, 20 July 1869, Page 3

RICH QUARTZ CLAIMS.

An Auckland paper has the following : —One of the richest specimens ever taken from the Thames goldfield !is a piece of quartz exactly 10J lbs weight, taken from the lode now being worked in the Long Drive claim. It is broken in two pieces, and presents the appearance of stone completely saturated through and through with gold. The amount of gold contained iu these two pieces of stone, is found to be just 36 ounces. "We have thus stone, and in no small quantity, yielding some 66 per cent, of gold. No better evidence of the fortunes to be realised here can be found than the very claim from which this stone has been taken. Early when the Thames Goldfield was opened, the Long Drive was commenced. For some time the original share-holders worked industriously along, but no return rewarded them. They drove far into the hill side, and at last struck quartz in which a little gold could be seen, and but little. Still the claim continued to be worked, though by a different party, i and stili returned little, while others I about it, more recently opened, gave I good dividends. At last the lode was I struck ; shares not worth £5 rose to | .£SO, and a claim which for eighteen months struggled hard to hold its way, can now boast of being second to none at the Thames, and even to surpass Hunt's claim itself. It was at this price that the Duke of Edinburgh bought in. He has left here but a short time, and shares have risen from fifty to seventy, and stand now at eighty pounds, with an upward tendency.