SEARCH FOR GOLD

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21939, 13 November 1936, Page 8

SEARCH FOR GOLD

OPENING UP NEW AREAS IN MARLBOROUGH APPOINTMENT OF ENGINEER IN CHARGE [THE PRESS Special Service.] BLENHEIM, November 12. As a result of an inspection of the goldfield areas in Marlborough which has just been completed by Messrs J. S. Hunter and Walter Bromley, of the Employment Promotion Division of the Department of Labour, and Mr S. W. S. Strong, chief mining engineer, at Greymouth, an engineer to take charge of mining in the Marlborough district as well as in Nelson and Takaka will soon be appointed. A thorough survey embracing every aspect of the country will be made, and if it is as promising as is anticipated larger prospecting parties will be put in and sent right back into new country. At present the majority of the miners employed under the subsidy scheme are only raking over old workings, and are not looking for new fields. It is only in isolated cases where a prospector works his way on to a piece of new ground that nuggets are found. In the majority of the other cases old tailings, from which the best of the gold has already been extracted by the early miners, are being washed through. If the survey is satisfactory, therefore, new methods will be adopted, and the richest localities concentrated on. Other areas not showing the same promise will be left and the men put to work where they will have the best chance of securing a return. It is understood that the new scheme will be put into operation very soon.

The party, which was very pleased with the district inspected, was accompanied by Mr A. H. Nees, county chairman, Mr B. Hundleby, county engineer, and Mr H. S. Clarkson, secretary of the gold mining executive. The tour occupied two days, the first day being devoted to the Wakamarina and Mahakipawa areas, and the next day to the Top Valley and Onamalutu localities.