GOLD STRIKES IN FIJI

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 22 April 1935, Page 9

GOLD STRIKES IN FIJI

INDUSTRY’S BRIGHT PROSPECT FIELDS ARE EASY TO WORK SEVERAL MINES OPERATING.

AUCKLAND, April 21

Bright prospects surrounding the newly-established gold mining industry in Fiji were outlined by Mr T. R. Victor, mining engineer, of Melbourne, who passed through Auckland by the Mariposa on his way back to Australia after a visit of inspection to the favua goldfield. Mr Victor said gold had been discovered in apparently payable quantities in various parts of the Fiji group. He was unable to talk at first hand concerning mines other than those on t,he Tavua 'field, which was about 140 miles from Suva by a metal road and situated at Tuva. Tova, on the Nasivi River, six miles inland from Tavua. There prospects of production had been definitely proved. . “The field consists of clear, undulating country,” Mr Victor said, “and it is comparatively easy to work. Geologically it is similar in many respects to the Waihi goldmining area. Several companies arq already on the field, but the main concern is the Emperor Mine, which is owned by an Australian syndicate. A mill lias been erected capable of treating 2000 tons of ore a month, ancl the mine is the only one on the field in production at present. The others arc still under development. Last month 600 ounces of fine gold were obtained from 500 toils of quartz taken' out of the Emperor Mine, and at no time was the mill running to capacity. A tunnel has been driven 800 ft. into a hill along tjio lino of the lode, which is bedded in ricks similar to those at the Waihi mine, and it has been proved for that lomgth with gold still showing in the face of the tunnel.

OPENED FOR 2CQQ FEET. ‘‘The Loloma Mine, with which 3 am principally connected, lias a definite silicious Icicle from 5 to 14ft. in width which has been opened by means of trenches and slialloiV shafts fur 20Q0ft., carrying values for the whole distance. One section of the lode, 000 ft. long and with an average width of 10ft., lias given a yield of 40 pennyweight a ton. Another section, 100 ft. long and 4ft. in width, has assayed from 10 to 250 z. to the ton, and tellurides of gold known as nagyagite are geological intimation of permanency of death. Thcs Ivorocre mine adjoining the Emperor mine on the south is developing a lode 25ft. wide with three shafts flOOft. apart each to a depth of 50 feet. Average values have been obtained of 16 pennyweight to th,e ton.”

SPECTACULAR SHARE RISE. Other mines under- development, Mr Victor continued, were those of Tavua Gold Options, Loloma West Company and the Aloha Syndicate. The shares of the last-named concern had risen from £lO to £BOO on the prospects of the mine alone. The original strike of the field was made on the land nowbeing worked by that syndicate, 2500 z. of gold having been panned off by dishing. “In the generally accepted sense of the term, there lias been no gold rush to Fiji,” Mr Victor said. “For one thing, there has not yet been a find of alluvial gold in quantities, which would prove payable to ail individual miner, and as a result of the mining laws of the country there is hardly scope for a prospector to work singlehanded. A man has a right to peg out a lease of 500 acres under a prospector’s license, and he can “sit on it” for about two years. Suitable credentials have to he produced before a man can obtain a prospector’s license, but the land thus pegged out is subsequently worked in mining leases of ICO acres, this area being much larger than that allowed in most other gold- I mining countries. The Colonial Government imposes a gold tax of 5 per cent, on output. “All the actual labour in the mines is done by native Fijians under European supervision. Fijians liiake quite good miners and adapt themselves readily to underground working conditions.”