SEARCH FOR GOLD

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 80, 16 March 1933, Page 10

SEARCH FOR GOLD

QUEST IN YUGO-SLAVIA activity of prospectors. NEW AND ANCIENT MINES. What approaches a Balkan “goldrush' i s developing in Yugoslavia, where British, American, French and Yugoslav prospectors have been busy ciuung the past summer and are now preparing for a large-scale gold mining programme next spring. In addition to new prospecting, many ancient and half-abandoned gold mine* —known 2006 years ago to the Romans and later to the Saxons of the 12th century—may be developed again in tlie north-east and southern districts of former Serbia, along the Rumanian and Bulgarian frontiers. A Yugoslav mining conceit. has just opened mills at Gloguvitsa, neat Msjyt<lia, south of tho Danube, while prospectors tor a large French mining group returned to Faris a tew weeks ago with cases of samples of alluvial gold from the auriferous valley of the river I'ek, (10 miles east of Belgrade. The Pck is the river up which—legend states—the Argonauts sailed out ol the Black Sea, and it is claimed that the story of the mythical Golden Fleece receives confirmation from the fact that to this day the ot the Pek Valley use sheepskins lor dredging out the alluvial gold •in the mountain streams.

in the Zlot-Bor mining district, not far away, a new American mining concern, Ziot Mines, Inc., has obtained substantial concessions this summer, and preparatory work, clearing, instalment of pipe-lines, erection of sheds and buildings, is already under way. Drilling, it is stated by the organiser of Zlot Mines, Mr J. A. Mailer, will start in April or May. Associated with Mr Mailer are eight American director* and Mr Milan Gavrilovic, former owner of the property. The largest gold mining operation* in Yugoslavia are carried on by • French concern at Bor, 30 miles northwest of Zajecar, where extensive copper mining is carried on. The gold output of the Bor mines is now more important than the copper, for the low pric* of copper on the world metal market contrasts with the fact that tho price of gold has never been higher than now.

Mr Robert Lethbridge, a well-known Belgrade mining engineer, says that in his opinion the amount of gold in Yugoslavia justified much greater exploration than it had received. Gold occurs in Yugoslavia in Old Serbia, North-east Serbia. South Serbia and Bosnia. The Yugoslav gold field forms part of a highly-mineralised belt stretching from the Transylvanian Alps south and east toward the Greek frontier.