THE WANGAPEKA SILVER LODES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXII, Issue 241, 12 October 1888, Page 3

THE WANGAPEKA SILVER LODES.

At various times during the last twenty Tears good galena and silver ores have been found in theWangapeka river, but no lode has been discovered until lately. A small prospecting company have from time to time during the past three years been trying to come upon the lode, and some months ago they discovered an outcrop in the river. Winter weather, however, interfered with any work being done just then, but in June prospectors were again sent up to open up on the discovery and trace it up the hill. The oountry is partly bush and the ground Terr thickly covered in moss, which makes prospecting extremely difficult, as until the moss is removed it i 8 impossible to form any ' idea of what lies beneath. However the prospector in tracing the run of the lode camt upon an old disused drive that had been put in on a quartz reef in the old Doran — Culliford time and driven some 40 feet. Tha stone from this had been carofully paddocked, and from some cause, no doubt the failure of the Doran 's crushing', left, and when found by the prospectors it was almost ooneealed by moss and scrub. After clearing out the drive it was found that the lode or reef was about three or four feet wide, and that the wbtlc of the stone was carrying bands of galena and silver ores, with a large quantity of iron pyrites. If this was driven on in the old days for gold, we can quite imagine the disappointment of the miners at the appearance of the stone, which gave but ft very poor show of the precious metal. On the lode being discovered, a syndicate in Ohristchurch took the matter in hand and applied for two leases, the Wangapeka and Nuggety Creek. They had two cwt. of the Stone sent to Christchurch, and Professor Bickerton made several assays for silver, lead, and gold. The whole of the stone was quartz with galena running through it, and irom a casual observation would not be considered payable, but the return has been in every way satisfactory, for the average was 75ozs of silver and over Bdwts of gold, with nearly 20 per cent of lead. In some of the assays the return was very high indeed, the galena in the quartz reaching 400 to 1000 ozs, If the reef should make into more galena and less quartz in depth, the syndicate will have a very valuable property. As it Is, the prospects are sufficiently encouraging toz working, and Messrs Cuff and Smyfche, two of the Ohristchurch syndicate, on a visit paid to the mine recently let a contract for sinking 50 feet in the lode, and on Tuesday last a special messenger was sent in to saj the contractors were already on rich ore, "We hope ere long to receive favorable Accounts from this district,