QUEST FOR GOLD

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 28 November 1938, Page 12

QUEST FOR GOLD

REEF ON WEST COAST I GOVERNMENT PARTY i | ROUGH, RUGGED COUNTRY SYSTEMATIC METHODS GREYMOUTH. 28th November. Over a large area of rough and j rugged country at an altiude of between 3000 and 4000 ft. in the almost impenetrable bush of the Paparoa range on the West Coast a systematic testing of a gold-bearing reef is being carried out by the mining section of the employment division of the Department of Labour. Some time ago a mineral lode or mineral-impregnated reef, which at the moment is unproved and which may be large or small, was discovered by an old prospector, Mr Albert Fiddes, at the head of Moonlight Creek, near Atarau, 23 miles from Greymouth. It is this reef and its strong outcrops which are being tested. Only when the results of the tests are known will the department be in a position to determine whether further expenditure oi public money is warranted on development work in the area. THE METHOD OF TESTING The w’ork of testing involves the uncovering of the reef at regular distances along the surface of the ground and cross-cutting by means of trenches. Samples of the quartz are then taken from a depth of from two to six feet and are sent to the School of Mines at Reefton for assay. The whole of the area round Moonlight Creek has been looked on for many years as a possible rich goldproducing area and it is known that i in its earlier history the field has produced many tons of the precious metal. Only in recent years from aa nearby area of a quarter of an acre four men extracted about £4OOO worth of gold after a few weeks’ work. EARLY DAYS RECALLED Many years ago when gold was first discovered in the Blackball district parties of prospectors made their way up through Atarau to the Moonlight field. In their search they spread over a wide area of country. Because of the dense bush, however, the work was not easy. As a result many of the prospectors preferred to work the creeks around Moonlight, where some fortunes were made At Anderson’s Flat, half-way to the head of Moonlight, a fair-sized township soon sprang up and flourished until a few days before the Great War. Huge heaps of tailing throughout this 1 area to-day speak volumes for the in- 1 dustry of the old-time prospectors. Men who have worked there believe to-day that although every available piece of 1 ground on the flats has been worked over probably more than once, the ' original supply of gold has never been 1 tapped, and that an extensive goldproducing body has yet to be located in 1 the high country. ] ( VERY WET DISTRICT f The men engaged in the work are , handicapped by the fact that the area is a particularly wet one. the rainfall l being much heavier than in many other ‘ districts of the West Coast. s Not the least of their difficulties arises from the necessity for all supplies to he transported 16 miles from Atarau by £ bridle track. None but capable men are being employed by the department. 1 ________ V