MINING INTELLIGENCE.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 27, 6 August 1869, Page 3

MINING INTELLIGENCE.

Dr. Hector lias read a paper to the New Zealand Institue on the mode in which gold occurs in the North and South Islands of New Zealand. A Wellington centemporary gives the following digest of the paper: —The author rapidly reviewed the evidence as to the matrix of the gold in Otago, Westiand and Nelson, and showed that in the North Island the essential conditions for the presence of gold are only represented by lines of dislocation, which created vertical bands of metainorphic rocks in formations that never yield gold in the unaltered state. In the case of the Thames, this vertical metamorphism has been accompanied by the eruption of igneous rocks. Around Wellington there were no ig- | neous rocks, and the gold that has as yet been found in the neighborhood was derived from bands of slatey rock, or lines of dislocation that rise in a north and With the assistance of colored sections, he explained the geological structure of the country around Wellington, and compared with the Thames district, showing the absence of the most characteristic rocks which are associated with the gold there. He warned miners from expecting too much from the hard compact quartz reefs that traverse the indurated sandstone in the neiglj ! :orhood of Wellington, as most at least of them

were of higher antiquity than the dislocations by which the goldhas escaped from the deep-seated rocks. In answer to Mr. Marehant the author stated that

at Taranalri similar organic rocks occur as at the Thames, bnt no slate rocks had yet been found associated with, them, -which was required to complete the similarity of conditions. At the same time he had seen very likely looking specimens from the\Kaitaki ranges, hut they had not yielded gold on analysis.

A paragraph elsewhere (sp„ys the ' Timaru Herald') informs our readers that a piece of quartz had recently been found up the Waiho River, and exhibited at Waim.ate, which is said to contain no less than fifty per cent of gold. We trust that this is really the case, and that our correspondent has • not been misled by. either the statements of the prospectors, or by any auriferous appearance the specimen of quartz might have presented. Quartz frequently has the appearance of being highly auriferous, when in reality it contains but little, if any, of the precious ore ; and it requires a most experienced eye and good judgment to determine the precise amount of valuable metal contained in it. If a piece of quartz has been found containing anything like fifty per cent, of gold, we augur the discovery speedily of a payable goldfield within our borders, as it will be an incentive for exertion on the part of prospecting parties, who will, let us hope, leave no part of the region in this district supposed to be auriferous unexplored. The G-ympie.—The Grympie correspondent of the ' Maryborough Chronicle ' writes as follows, on June 29 : The yield of gold from recent crushings has been good, and the next escort will probably be the second largest fi-om this field. Eight tons stone from the

claim No. 1 north, London reef, yielded 493 ozs 5 dwts of gold, being an average of Oli ozs to the ton. Eorty-fiva tons from No. 1 north, One-mile reef —exclusive of specimens estimated to contain 200 ozs of gold—produced 2410 ozs of smelted gold. Several excellent crushings have already been obtained from the latter claim; but the vein till recently was very thin, and wiseacres expressed, a deliberate opinion that it would run out, instead of which it has made into a good body of stone at a depth of over 100 feet, at which level the quartz now crushed was obtained. Three weeks ago a shareholder, holding one twelfth, disposed of his in-

ter'est for £350, then considered a high figure. The lucky purchaser gets back his money with an equivalent sura to boot, and prospects of even better fortune for some time to come. Diamonds at the Cape.—The advices from the Cape announce the finding of another diamdnd, much,, larger than any yet met with in the:.colony. The following-: particulars are #6m a

•letter received by Messrs. Groodliffe and Smart, from their correspondents at Cape Town, dated the 31st of March : —" The news will reach you by this opportunity of the finding of the large diamond —our Cape ' Koh-i-noor '— valued at £32,000. There is no delu-

sion in this, as in the goldfields, so you may believe it implicitly. This diamond was found near the Orange Eiver, in the diamond territory, and was bought of a native doctor for 500 sheep and a few cattle by Mr. Niekerk, a Dutchman, who again resold it to Messrs. Lilienfield, of Hope Town, for £11.200, and it is now on the way to Algoa Bav. We need hardly say that this news, confirmed by the Civil Commissioner to our Colonial Secretary, had caused great excitement here, as there can be no doubt of the immense wealth of this diamond country. What would a syrteuiatic search effect, when over forty diamonds have now been found, chieily hy Natives?"

"Balinor" and " Car-na-bu "—respectively translated, the Town of G-old and the City of Tents —are the significant names of two towns which have suddenly sprung into existence in thegold producing county of Sutherland,, in Scotland. The diggers are upon the whole still well pleased with their success, and one lucky fellow recently came upon a nugget weighing nearly three ounces. Great complaints are made of the 10 per cent, claimed on the earnings of the miners as royalty.