PROSPECTING ON WEST COAST

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22390, 2 May 1938, Page 8

PROSPECTING ON WEST COAST

GOVERNMENT PARTIES WITHDRAWN

PAYABLE GOLD-BEARING REEFS NOT FOUND

INVESTIGATIONS IN REMOTE AREAS

[THE PRESS Special service.] GREYMOUTH, May 1. High hopes that a rich area of gold-bearing reefs would be found in the mountainous and almost inaccessible country of the Waikiti, about 58 miles east of Greymoutht, have been shattered by the withdrawal, during the last few weeks, of a party of prospectors who have been testing there, under the direction of the mining section of the Employment Department, for the last 13 months. Apart from Reefton and Lyell, also on the West Coast, the Waikiti, in the department’s view, was the most important reef prospecting area on the West Coast. In September, 1936, after repeated and glowing reports had been received by the department from men who had been in the Waikiti, a party of experienced prospectors was sent in by the late Mr S. W. S. Strong, senior mining engineer to the Government, to test the ground, under the leadership of Mr John Guy, local supervisor. During many months this party, which at no time numbered more than 14 men, was engaged in most arduous and difficult work, scouring many miles of ground In country that is densely wooded and mountainous throughout. Many reef out-crops were found and were marked out, samples being taken later by Mr J. Bolitho, Government mining geologist, and sent on for assay, to the Government School of Mines at Reefton. The result of that assay has been to establish that, although in some cases the reefs are definitely gold-bearing, in no instance was such value obtained as to warrant further investigations at the Waikiti. Further, it was agreed that the naturo of the country in which the reefs were found was not likely to be productive of anything in the form of permanent or regular reefs. The Taipo Area

Another important prospecting area which has been almost abandoned by the department is the Taipo, 35 miles south of Greymouth and six miles south of Jackson’s, on the Greymouth-Chrlstchurch road. There, at Gold Creek, a thorough investigation was begun in October, 1936, under the leadership of Mr K. McKinnon, Government Mining Supervisor for the West Coast. Conditions were particularly adverse because of the dense forest and the mountainous nature of the terrain, but chiefly because, in winter, snow offered an almost insuperable difficulty, the -territory being about 4000 ft above sea-level. Also, there was during the winter the everpresent danger from heavy avalanches. Prospecting was carried out for about eight months, until at the end of July, 1937, it was decided that further operations were inadvisable. At that time climatic conditions had necessitated the evacuation of the prospectors’ camps, it was considered that the results obtained so far did not warrant the expenditure of public moneys required for any further investigations. .Had it been decided to carry on with the work, it would have been necessary to cut timber and build huts for the -men and, most important, to build a roadway to give access to the scene of operations.

To-day only three men are working on the area, Messrs Dillon and Wilkinson (2), who are at the Seven-mile Creek, where a reef formation has been found yielding better and more consistent sampling than that from the Gold Creek strike. Although to date they have found nothing of an important nature, one sample was proved at 10 ounces of gold to the ton of quartz, taken from a reef, out-crop. This, at the very least, is distinctly encouraging. Expensive Machinery Needed

Because of the abandonment of these important areas by the department, it is considered that the days of dish, or alluvial, mining on the West Coast have passed. Any number of areas of low-grade gold are left, certainly, but these require expensive and up-to-date machinery that they may be worked successfully. Further, Worthwhile “pockets” of gold will probably continue to be found by the individual miner or fossicker, but it is considered by experts that nothing on a big scale is likely to be found in the future. Fair prospect for alluvial gold is offered, however, in the Snowy river area, Just north of Ikamatua township. The Snowy river rises in the Blackwater and Waiuta gold-reefing areas and flows to join the Grey river north of Ikamatua. Gold in fair quantity has been found along the banks of the Snowy river and on the terraces which parallel it on either side. This particular area has not been thoroughly prospected, probably because of the lack of water.