GOLD HARVESTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 November 1932, Page 2

GOLD HARVESTS

FIELD IN EAST AFRICA. There are probably few goldfields within the Empire so little known as the area now being worked in the South-west of Tanganyika Territory, known as the Lupa Goldfield, which is still remote from civilisation, although Mbeya, the nearest township, is a night stopping-place used by Imperial Airways. The principal interest of East Africa generally has been centred on the more recent discoveries at Kakamega, in Kenya, but the workings in the Lupa district are attracting an ever-increasing number of diggers. The results so far achieved give promise of richer finds when the area has been further prospected.

The main gold belt is something like fifty miles in extent and lies in one of the most remarkable geological formations in the whole of Africa. The whole district bears evidence — even more so than Kakamega—of volcanic disturbances. To the north and west lies a vast plain dotted with island-like hills or mountains —‘Sometimes rising to a height of five thousand feet —among which the Lupa river gently winds its way to that belt of broken country where the principal gold discoveries hav© been made. To the south-westward lies the Mbeya range, rising to over 9000 feet above sea-level, over-looking the town-ship and aerodrome on its southern slopes. It is here that the bulk of the gold dust is traded for stores, while every week the mail aeroplane carries to England registered packets, perhaps amounting to hundreds of ounces. SCARCITY OF WATER. The main obstacles to development in the Lupa Goldfield are difficulties of transport and the scarcity of water at certain seasons of the year. The greater part of the area is three hundred miles from the railhead, and all roads, even to Mbeya, only seventy miles distant, are impassable during the rains. Although an enterprising syndicate is transporting machinery and setting up stamp duties, the difficulties and expense of commencing reef work of any magnitude are apparent. Even during the dry season, the cost of petrol is 3/9 per gallon. The great majority of the gold diggers, among whom Dutch, German, and British predominate, are still alluvial workers. Many are farmers who leave their farms during’ the rains, and work the small streams and tributaries of the main rivers, which are dry at other times of the year.

Any important developments in the Lupa, as at Kakamega,. will be among the quartz reefs spread over a large area, and in many eases running from ten to twenty pennyweights to the ton. The most promising feature is that the quartz reefs extend to a considerable depth, as the present surface of the goldfield is but an accident of time and erosion, and similar reefs are found in hills and valleys differing in level by 1500 feet or more. The probability that the present level happens to be the richest in gold-bear-ing properties is therefore remote. The record piece of reef so far discovered has yielded 8 per cent gold, and was appropriately named the “Jeweller’s Shop.” There are indeed indications that the future may reveal a gold-find comparable with that at Kilo in the Belgian Congo—surely for its size the richest gold-bearing area in the world.

Statistics show that durng 1931 no less than 190,000 ounces of gold were produced at the Kilo workings. If any area akin to that is opened up in Kenya or Tanganyika, East Africa may expect a doubled or trebled white population.

Gold-diggers are casual fellows, and goldfinders most casual of all. The largest nugget so far discovered in the Lupa weighed 920 z. The owner pursued a swift course into the nearest town, with a vague idea of realisation, and a very real idea of a bacchanalian evening at the'local hotel. Needless to say the nugget spent an evening amid a large circle of admirers—and the next day was nowhere to be found, it was discovered some time later in a neighbouring hen-run, much scarred, its weight reduced to 60ozs.

The owner took particular care to send it off by mail, but it never reached its destination, so that he has the scant, consolation of telling the story of his nugget, which at least has broken all records for rapid attenuation.