THE OWEN REEFS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XX, Issue 181, 31 July 1886, Page 3

THE OWEN REEFS.

MR. WRIGHT'S REPORT. To the Chief Surveyor, Nelson. Sib — I have the honor by your iustruciions to furnish the following report on the Owen Reefe, which I have prepared from survey, and from a careful examination of the different lodes and of the locality generally. In following this report it will be borne in mind that the reefs described are in no way developed, bub are outcrops of quartz, frequently of great magnitude, which even in the older claims have in no cfsa been opened up. Theso outcrops are numerous, but those only are shown which come within the limits of actual survey. The area described is contained by the water shed of the Owen river niid its tributaries, and is in length twelve, and in wi:Uh eight, miles. It is enclosed ou the uorth, east, and west by lofty mountains, anu on the eouth by the Culler river, The Owen junctions with the Bullor on the conch road from Neleon to Reefton av a point distant sixty miles from the latter, and fccventj-six from the former, place. In following down the Buller river from Nelson at about ten miles before reaching the Owen a bt-lt of syenitic granite occurs, being about five miles wide, und ex! ending northward from Mount Murchison, which is also of granite. This belt appears to be the eastern termination of the gold deposits of the Buller which, although rich below the line, have produced no yields of any importance above if. From this fact it may bo inferred that ths rocks which have i-o enriched the river and its tributary streams nro lying westward of and above the granite. This granite — as a continuous rnd kfty mountain range — forms the eastern water shed of the Owen, and the superincumbent strata are beds of slate and sandstone, a formation most favorable to the existence of mineral lodes. The slates change greatly in character, from a bright brown argillaceous rock with regular cleavsge, to a dark semi-crjstalline and brittle moss, with angular fraciHiv. They are botb, however, traversed by numeioua quartz lodes aDd veins, all more or less auriferous, but the brighter colored slates appear to contnin all the richer reefs at pj-r-.»ant discovered. Thf-se rocks change to blue in mining, and iron pyrites ou the cleavage surface of the slate takes the place of the oxide of iron nearer the surface. The strike of the strata is nearly N.W., and the dip S.W., the angle of dip being about fifty degrees. The quartz lodrs which are found cropping to the surface at almost every spur, and which are as frequently exposed by the crerka and riverg, are in systems of parallel reef?. The crops are frequently immense bodies of stone, and the hanging wall well defined, with a strong selvage of a greyish clay. Their strike is about 33 degrees N.W., and their nndrrlie conforms nearly with the dip of the strata. The foot wall varies in every case, both in strike and underlie, in some places bearing nearly north and south, and standing almost vertical. From this peculiarity it is evident that the reefs will not be found lying betwer-n two regular and almost parallel walls, but in the shape of blocks of quattz, forming in the S,E. probably, and dropping into the hanging wall as they are traced northward — .1 formation difficult to follow where the bloik-3 are small, but on tbi3 field the blocks appear to be of immense size, and th» quantity of s'.ono, if it contains sufficient., gold, shru'd compensate for the trouble of prospecting for them. In every case where I could test the hiu<ring wall I found it to be richer in gold than any other part of the reef, and other minerals ihai usually accompany gold, oxide of iron. j>jri tea, magnetic iron ore, lime, &o , h.»vs given a peculiar hon-ycomb character to the eiouc in that direction. The quartz on the foot wall is more frequently found hard and massive, and contains much less gold and very Hitlc other mineral. The gold ia of one character ia all the different reefs, being granular and heavy; it makes no show in the stone even ia hand specimens that will yield eight to ten ounces to the ton bat it will bo easily saved in passing through the battery. The leases held for mining purposes are situated from eight to teu miles above the junction of the Owen with the Buller, and are fourteen in number ; they, with the several quartz crops they contain, are shown on the accompanying plan. Nii.e of them arcoccupying ground on the lino of the Bulmer reefp. The Bulmer Creek is the pioneer claim of the district, and occupies a sharp stoop spur facing the south, a marked feature in the area being a precipitous bluff iu the slate rock extending eaßt ard west, across the ground which, in the face of it, exposes three lar^e reefs. No 1 is a blow of stone of a thickness not yet ascertained, tho hanging wall not being exposed. I can safely say it is twenty feat, but it is probably much more. This it accompanied by a gold bearing leader to the westward of it which has been traced a long way up the spur. No 2is a well formed reef of three feet in thickness, also having a rich leader on the hanging wall; and No 3 is a reef of five feeb in thickness, but shows no gold. There reefs have scarcely been touched, as the workings, which are considerable, have been drives, entered with the object to cross-cutting the reef at a lower level, Noa 1, 2, 3, and 4. No 1, 240 feet, shows no reef ; No 2, 90 feet, has cut the No 2 lode, but has not been driven upon it although the quartz is five feet thick. No 3 shows no reef, and No 4 has cut a lode which, for position and underlie, nearly corresponds with the No 2 lode. This drive will be useful as a main low level when the jreefs are developed, but instead of following the reef which has been cub at that level, it would be better to open those which are known to contain gold and to prove them, ■when the work could be carried on afc the greater depth with more certainty. The trials made of the quartz in this claim yielded, from the eastern leader No 2 reef, loz 15dwts ; from the western leader, 12dwts 4grs ; and from the reef in the crosscut No 2, sdwis 14grs to the ton. These, which were taken as generally as possible so as to avoid picking the stone, were from all the faces exposed, and this applies to all the other ttete hereafter mentioned. At the south end of this area and extending three or four ghains into the " Wakntu" and half way acrosß the- " Uno" ground in a line parallel with the bluff, is a belt of huge quartz blocks, scattered and disconnected, but highly auriferous. Some of the largest carry with them the whole of the lode foundation and would, except for their changed position, b9 easily mistaken for jeefs in the solid. About forty tons of quartz have been taken from one of tbesa blocks by the Bulmer Creek Company, r.nd perhaps eighty or ninety from another by the Wakatu, the latter going 19dwts 13gi-3 to the ton, and the former about the fi*ine, both containing a great deal of quartz of a richer character which would yield three or four ounces. The Wakalu drive passed forty feet along one of these blocks, and was afterwards extended to a crop course which it cul at J32 feet. This crop course is at>j»ghb angles to the rse&s and dip^-toward^tho sou'.h-f-asb and has all theiad-i&ationS of having been a sery considerable slide by which the whole of tho reef -formation was brought down from the bluff into the '• Uno " Valley and scattered in the pell meli position it now .occupies?. The quantity of quarlz in these .blocks is very considerably for a great numtoer of them are exposed to she surface, and -what is buried beneath it cannot be estimated. A test from these blocks gave 19 dwfcs 10 grains per ton. The Uno has two strong lodee, one fire tett thick, the other two feet, marked 4 aud 5 on plan, which, running northward and rising eastward on their underlie, will pass through this belt of blocks and may have thrown down the eastern portion of them. The " Wakalu United " is putting iu a cross-cat to intersect these reefs, and by rises to work the blocks. The drive is in some seventy feot in goo i cuuiry and is the very best mode that could have been adopted lor proßjecting the mine. This Company have a s'.rong lrde or two in the spur west, of Spring Creek, but the crops are 110b sufficiently exposed to admit of any estimate being made of their value. In following the J3ulmer lodes southward, the fall of the ground, and the underlie of the reefs combined, carry them considerably to the westward of the line of strike.

The ground at the Bulmer Creek is unoccupied, bub spurs ou the south sida of it are within the area held by the Bonanza Q.M.C. BOre thero are several outcrop?, ono of which ti fully forty fset thick, imd three others am strong lodes, but all unprospected. They all contain gold, but till they ore faced off and stripped to some extent it will be impossible to give an opinion of their value. . The reefs, after rising the. Bonanza epur, show the same north-west strike, but tho hill is covtred with blocks of blue limestone, the fringe of a bed of the same rock under which fcbe slato dips. On the south eide of the epur the elate again appears and the quartz crops tc the surface. The Owen Company occupies this ground and h.-s one crop of quatiz containing gold. There is a, good deal of scattered gold-bearing quartz abou". ill'; surface and olher indications of reefs. The " Z' alnndia " has two quartz crop? in a creek v.'hioh lias ixposel th<-m ; (he upper one is fourteen feet thick and, 1 believe, will prove payable. The lower ono contains gold and is probably twice that thickness, but the general tost of the stone shows that, it wilt not all p y for working. The qnar z containing tho most gold is near the hanging wall, and it also carries a considerable quantity of iron pyrites. The mine can ba easily prospected by a cutting through tho two reefs on a level wi.h the outcrop and it would be inexpensive work. The analysis of the stone tak n over the whole surface of the reef gave i dwta i grains, bnt the stone near the hanging wall will give a far better yield. Although thu " Broken Hill " blow has all the appearance of a gold bearing re^f I was unsuccessful in the test I made of tho stone. Somo twenty fceb or so of tho reef is exposed in width bill, thi3 appears to b* a small portion of i'». The hanging wall is not showing ou the surface. Tbia, like the {Continued on l'\mr)h Page.)

Bonanza requires to be worked to some extent before the value of it cau be estimated, as a greater portion of what would in all probability be the best part of the reef is hidden. There are indications of other reefs westward of this within the Broken Hill boundary. The Enterprise is next on this line of reef and the area held by the Company contains four lodes and several quaitz crop3 upon them. The most important one is facing the Owen Eiver. On visiting this at fiivt it had the appearance of several big blocks of quartz piled one j on another with soil and moss between them to the height of 106 feet, when the shareholders at my request stripped the fao9 in a line eastward ironi the cap to the river, which proved it to be one solid reef sloping eastward 52deg OOinin to the river, but this being contrary to the direction of tbe general dip of the reefs, and of the strata to winch they nearly conform, I got them to open the cap aud io put a winze ten feet down on the underlie. The cap proyed to be six feet and the underlie 63deg 30min south-west. I then prospected the whole suiface of the stone, taking clippings from the whole face exposed, and found by crushing roughly and panning at the river ,lldwts 16 grs to the ton ; by an analysis of the same test 4oz 2dwts 4 grains| of quar z from a drill hole No. |l, Bdwts 18grs; No. 2, 19dwts lOgrs; No. 3, 3 ounces 12dwts 21grs. Tbe3e were one foot six inches in depth. No. 4, a drill hole near the cap of the reef, gave a yield oE 19ozs 13dwts Ggrs to the tor., the last two producing a number of small quartz specimens, evidently from a joint in the quartz faced with gold. Two other trials were made from the foot wall of the reef but the quartz was not payable. The reef as now proved has a section as Bhown in margin and is probably 102 feet in thickness from wall to wall. The distance on the line of it is not more than forty feet at any point, so that to prove it laterally should be the first work in opening the ground. This done the stone could be quarried in an open face. The Golden Point leasehold is the last southward on these reefs, and in this the Enterprise will be found to dip under the bed of the river, and mining wilt be necessary. The reef is nowhere exposed in this area, but the wash of the river has been rich in coarse gold for some distance below this point, which is no doubt attributable to the breaking up of the quarlz by the stream, as the deposit is but a local one; It is probable that the Comstock Reef which has a strike westward of south, has intersected the Enterprise somewhere below this point, and that in continuation it follows the eastern bank of the river along which a \ reef crops at intervals for some three or four hundred yards, and tha: , as is usual in such intersections, one of tne lodes has been enriched by the other crossing it. There are other reefs— four probably — in this ground and two of them are gold bearing. A very large lode extends at the back of this, the Enterprise and the Broken Hill, but it has not been proved and I had not an opportunity of prospecting it ; it has, however, the same character as the other lodes. North of the " Bulmer Creek " claim is a lease held as the " Lyeil " Q. M. C. and it is on the line of these reefs. The " Golden Crown" is an isolated lease taking in a hill to the east of the Owen Biver, the crop being about 700 feet above the foot of the hill. The reef is very little exposed and the strike of it doubtful, but the under; ie is about 50° to the westward. The face of the hill has an inclination of cio° to 4i>° and so it would not take a great distance to intersect the reef by driving at any point below the cap. There are parallel reefs in the claim. I obtained a prospect of loz odwta 16grs from a rough crushing at the river, and sent the remainder of the stone for analysis to "Wellington where it produced sdwts 2grs. The quartz was from every part exposed. The Golden Fleece and Comstock are on a reef between the Bulmer and the Golden Crown which runs from 4° to 8° into the southwest down a long spur. The lode is an immense one and crops in four or five places. It has a slight underlie to tbe southwest but is quite nnprospected. I obtained the color of gold in the "Fleece" from the main reef and found gold bearing stone on the surface which Elopes to the Owen Kiver, which probably came from a parallel lode. The "Southern Star" claim is to the westward of the " Bulmer Creek " and will, judging from the amount of quariz on the surface, have reef in the ground. Several other lodes were examined and tested, most of which showed some gold and all a great body of stone. The several tests mentioned were small parcels, each being from four to ten pounds weight, and it is to be regretted that the distance from any battery and the difficulty of getting the quartz away prevented a larger sample being treated, but as that was taken from .every portion of the reef exposed, the result, I think, should give an idea of the value ol them, but such small trials are apt to give an exaggerated value or the reverse. I can only, say that the quartz is there in any quantity, and that the gold is there also, and apparently in payable quantities, but the permanent character of the reefs must be proved by working them. The want of a battery is much felt, but there is do mine sufficiently open to warrant the erection except the " Enterprise.'* This claim_ will no doubt be the first to obtain machinery when the roads are improved sufficiently to admit of heavy traffic, but at pieeent nothing but light packing can be done on the track and that with difficulty. There will be no necessity for steam power in any part of the district, for the rivers send down a constand and very considerable supply of water. The fall is great, being three feet per chain in the vicinity of the mines, and good machine sites can be had in plenty. There is plenty of timber for mining purprses. Brown birch chiefly, with an occasional black pine and totara, and ligufc birch cover the Bpurs, and heavy timber with a dense undergrowth the hollows and slopes. Tbe hills are very sleep and in all the claims taken up seven or eierhfc hundred feet of backs can be had to the mines excepting the Enterprise reef, which would give perhaps three hundred feeb on the northern bonndary. Nothing came nnder my notice that would lead me to think other minerals than gold are present in sufficient extent or value to pay for the working. There is coal, galena: and an imony, but notMag like a seam of coal or lodes of any minerals have besen met with. The Owen river is a receptacle for all the rocks and minerals in the district^ Blocks of granire, quartz, limestone, sandstone, slate, marble, iron ores, rubies, and some gold are to be found in it, and the latter bas been worked to some exf.enf , bub the immense boulders of gi&mU which exist nil oloDg its bed make the work costly, and it has not hitherto been profitable. There is a considerable area of land fit for settlement between the Buller and the head of the valley, probably four thousand acre?, which could be leased and occupied eo is in po way to iuterfere with mining, and there is an excellent site for a township on II Flowers Flat !) two miles south of Bulmer Creek. The line of road laid off by Mr Jackson of the Public Works Department is tbe best in every way, for grade, shortness of route, and economy of construction, and it will open a considerable extent of land for settlement which the Owen River line would not. About two miles at either end require to be thorough"ly made, when traffic could pass over the remainder with a little clearing without difficulty. The only thing I see against the district is the peculiar disposition of the quartz in the reef, being injhuge masses and not continuous, Bind I would strongly advocate a system of extended claims so that in the event of a block being worked bat the Companies will have others to fall back upon, but if the other blocks exposed prove on being opened up as big as the Enterprise appears to be I see no reason why they should not be made to pay, for I have never seen lodes that could be worked at so If ttle cost. The section of the Enterprise as given in this report, supposing it to continue in depth 200 feet, would give 500 tons of quartz for every foot in length and 100 feet along the line of reef would give 500,000 tons in the block, and this could be proved in three months by working three shifts easily. The other blocks on the same reef may be equally as large, but the river has prospected and exposed this to view, and in fact opened a mine. Ten head of stamps will do more to open this field than all the mining, for ifc will enable the companies to obtain trial prqsbings as the work proceeds for at present

to stack quartz without a knowledge of it might be attended with considerable loss. A roul and a battery are necessary before any of the mines can be thoroughly prospected. The lime stone which occurs at the summit of the Bonanza Spur covers the whole ol that hill to the westward. It comes off Mount Owen and extends across the gorge of the left-hand branch. I did not go beyond this, but Mr Buhner, who hj,s been there, informs me that the slate appears again to the westward of the limestone, and that there are outcrops of quartz. I regret that the weather prevented me from examining this. An extension of the field as at present occupied may be looked for in this direction, and also in a line parallel to the granite, both up and down the valley, but I observe no reefs down the Owen below the left hand branch, where the rocks change to a sandstone. A few specimens of the locks accompany this report. — I have, &c, W. C. Wright, Surveyor.