TE PUKE GOLD REEFS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 211, 6 September 1899, Page 5

TE PUKE GOLD REEFS.

At No. IS east level the drive south has been extended 15ft. for the week. The reef is not dipping- to the west, bo we are working the hanging wall. We Wi.x be cutting timber next, and afterwards will cut across the reef. PROGKESS-CASTLE ROCK. No. 1 reef averag-es about Gin. wide, and shows g-old frequently. At No. 2 level the reef is about Sin. thick, and looks very promising, and at the last breaking-down the quartz showed strong colours of gold. An intermediate level has also been started. DIAMOND MINING. The report of the New South Wales Department of Mines for 1899 gives interesting information on the occurrence of diamonds in that colony. It states diamonds were discovered near P.athhurst as far back as 1851, and in ISG7 no less than 3000 to 4000 diamonds were got by one Company at Mudgee. In 187(5 an extensive rush took place at Bingera, but as the Sydney jewellers refused to buy the stones, there being no market work was abandoned. In ISBI the Bingera field was inspected by Mr E._ F. Pitman, now Government Geologist, who furnished a report which resulted in more attention being paid to diamond mining. As the miners still had great difficulty in selling the stones the Government sent a parcel of them to London to the Colonial and Indian Exhibition. These were reported upon by Messrs Thos. Da vies, P.G.S., and U. Etheridge, junr., and the following conclusions were specially emphasised: (l) That the diamonds of N.S.W. in their physical characteristics are more nearly allied to those of, Brazil than any "other country. (2) They have been largely sold in London n«f such. (3) As \regards colour they differ practically but little from those of other h'elds. and "that the greater hardness of the N.S.W. gems would probably raise the cost of cutting, hut this would be compensated by their extra brilliancy."' The Government report stntcs that during last year the output of diamonds from N.S.W. was 10,493 carats, the largest since the opening of the industry. In their report the experts refer to the fact that N.S.W. diamonds are more varied in form than those from, the

Cape bearing1 a close resemblance to Brazilian stones. The diamond in X.S.W. occurs in drift and cement, representing1 old river accumulations of more than one geological age, but so far no "pipe" is reported as showingl whence they clime. In some cases diamonds have been found in tihe waste heaps round old shafts pxit down for gold mining purposes.