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WEST COAST QUARTZ MINING.

PRESENT POSITION OF THE INDUSTRY. Some interesting information regarding the present conditiones of the quartz mining industry on the West Coast and its prospects were obtained by a representative of the "Christchurch Press" from Mr G. L. Tacon, of Greymouth, who is in close touch with mining matters on the Coast. "Labour for both coal and quartz mining is in very short supply at presetnt," he said, "and the Government, in bringing out emigra.ua, should endeavour to induce miners, especially coal miners, to come to Mew Zealand. New mines are being opened up, and at present there is a very serious shortage of labour for the " mines that are being worked. The wages earned by these miners and the conditions of life are the highest and best in the world, and I am sure that if this were known in English mining centres many men that the^Dominion could do with would come out. "Every quartz mine at present being actively worked on the West Coast is on more or less payable ore. These include the various mines at Reefton of the Progress and Consolidated groups (English companies), also the Keep-it-Dark, Big River, the New Alpine, and the Blackwater Mines, Limited, which last-mentioned are being at present developed. According to the reports of this company they have about £1,000,000 of gold in sight, which cari be mined at a highly profitable rate. The known production of alluvial gold from the West Coast runs into well over twenty million pounds in value, and there is no doubt that this gold has been shed from the reefs that exist in the heights of the east. That the ma-' I trix, or source, of this enormous yield is quartz U proved by the amount of quartz found, as sands, adhering to and associated with alluvial gold won by miners, dredges, etc. The reefs found so far occur chiefly in slates, and traverse the entire West Coast, almost without break, from end to end — a stretch of almost 400 miles. At only a few isolated spots — such as Lyell, Capleston, Reefton, and Blackwater — has' this huge slate belt been prospected, and at all these points highly payable reefs have been found. The potentialities of this stretch of country, which ' is all comparativelyaccessible, are, so far as I have been able to learn, unequalled in .my known mining country in the world. What is required is knowledge and the honest administration of capital. Now mat the railway is going through, and will connect the East and West Coasts, Canterbury has a distinct interest in the development of the West Coast, and the people here should fnrther aid that development, not necessarily by putting money into Coast ventures, but by sticking up for a district which, as soon as railway communication is accomplished, will become a part of Canterbury again. The trading community of Canterbury will reap the benefit of any development that oocurs on the Coast. "Within the next year or two a considerable amount of prospecting on sound lines will be inaugurated, as the result of the sound position of the working mines, and the result of this prospecting need not be looked forward to with any apprehension. I expect to hear of large finds being made from one end of the West Coast to the other, and in years to come quartz reefs will be profitably worked from Collingwood in the North to Preservation Inlet in the South, with, of course, occasional blanks."

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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NEM19080213.2.3

Bibliographic details

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 13 February 1908, Page 1

Word Count
583

WEST COAST QUARTZ MINING. Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 13 February 1908, Page 1

WEST COAST QUARTZ MINING. Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 13 February 1908, Page 1