THE ROMANCE OF GOLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13873, 6 October 1908, Page 6

THE ROMANCE OF GOLD .

IN THE TOKATEA RANGES, PROSPECTING WORKS IN PROGRESS. LARGE AREA UNDEVELOPED. No. lII.' •' ■■^j^jli [FROM OCR SPECIAL MINING: REPORTER] "r V •■- '\ COROMAXDLL, Mon^-y. .- 1;' ' One can scarcely go into any portion of ■*• the workings of most of ths Coromandel '' mines, in company with an old hand ' . who knows the ground, without being ' . shown locality alter locality where rich' ' i patches have been won. It is this that i sets up the halo of romance that char- ' acterises the field. There is, of course, ■ 1 little of the romantic about the life <>£', ' the average miner working for wages. Hidden away in the bowels of the earth, breaking so many feet of country rock or quartz per day, working in wet and often lonely tunnels, by the dim light oi spluttering candles, it, is small wonder that from him the romantic aspect is hidden. It is astonishing the holes and corners they get into in the search for the precious yellow metal, to secure which many men would sell their souls, but hesU ■ i tate to soil their handis. UP THE TOKATEA. On the second day of my visit, I went! . up the* Tokatea where two or three properties are being worked on a com. '. paratively small scale. Just prior to reaching the summit, or saddle, of the hill a stop was made at the Tokatea Gold Mining Company's workings. Hero I " found operations proceeding quits near the roadway, at the footwall side of th« *7 big Tokate? reef, and in the vicinity of where Woods and Kelly, two tributers, got a rich strike some six years ago, taking out over lOOoz in two days from , Woods' leader. At the road level, 1 inspected a stope going in on No. 1 leader. The latter, small in dimensions, like all the richest veins on the field, was looking . well and traversing splendid mineralised country. Free gold was showing in the stone. A second stope was in progress, in which the leader looked even better in [ quality, though, if anything, rather narrower than in the stope below. The indications were good for gold ir both stopes. {A few pounds of picked 'stone-'':»% : ; were got here on Saturday last.) In a ' drive, in the same vicinity, some°"work was' being done on McLean's, leader, a ; ~ one-inch vein, from which I saw good prospects. A few feet ahead of this will junction with No. 1 leader, when the resuits are not expected to be disappointing. At the Tribute level, 80ft above the road level, the drive on Woods' leader was being pushed ahead. The ■' - manager (Mr. Chapman) informed mo that after going another 10ft he would • . /continue the stope in which the rich ■ - mineral vein recently yielded picked stone. No. 2 stope was also in progress ' here, and in some of the stone broken down, just prior to my visit, I saw free • gold. There were two or three strong mineral veins in the face of the second 1 " ' stope, which are generally good indica* tions, and for 10ft gold had been seen itt the stone. It was expected that as these workings progressed other leads would be ' cut. The history of this particular mine ■ shows that the known veins have been, , fairly-weJJ .exploited above the present adit levels'. The possibility, however, of " i highly auriferous vein-quartz still existing, even in : the near vicinity of old workings, is frequently demonstrated, not only in the Tokatea mine, but in other '' parts of the field. Farmer's vein, in the Tokatea- was, for instance,' considered valueless, owing to insufficient prospecting,; but this "dropper," or branch "of the Tribute leader, later on yielded bonanza ore, which contributed most of the output from the property for eome years. The rich " ore mined from the Tokatea property hat '~ : generally been found to occur as definite ' shoots and irregular patches, and in the tipper levels the ore-shoots have usually • been associated with the mineral heads such as-1 have described as having seen in' the stopes on No. 1 or the Tribute leader. On the_ whole, though poetically only ', prospecting work is being carried" on in . tliis mine, one would say that judgment is being shown, in the work done to date. It is certainly an example of the fascina- , , tion of looking for gold in likely places, and near where historical patches have been -won. I was shown a dishful of stone, before leaving, taken from both . , workings which was good enough to he'.- ' ■ classed as picked stone, the gold being plainly visible. ~ ,' * THE ROYAL OAK. ■ • • / About halfway down the Kennedy Bay '. sid* of the Tokatea Hill, I reached: the Royal Oak mine, another ,old gold pre- ' ducer. It. was just near here itiat I 'ran; across a young fellow who, with one mate, is engaged in working a bit of ■' ground he has pegged out for himself. He had not got the reef yet, but the favor of gold -was on him, "and he wad very sanguine. It was with cheerv hospital-, ity that he placed a billy of hot tea at his visitor's disposal. Mr. Geo. McNeill, who is in charge of the Royal Oak,' showed' me through the present 'workings. Efforts are chiefly concentrated at the A level oh. No. 2 leader. About 4ft hick from the face of the drive, which I inspected good stone was recently Uiken . out for a distance of 12ft. The* lead is small in the face, and consequently the*,' run spoken of will be gone back to and sunk upon at a point -where I was shown - some good mineral heads looked upon .-' as such excellent indicators of gold • throughout the field. At the same level (about 350 ft below the hilltop). I found a rise in progress on the Tribute lead, some '- 300 ft west of the drive. In a stope'.'.'".'": off this rise £100 was got out of loft of ground, and then a. fault cut it off. Quartz -was making again in this stone, however, at the time of my visit. The importance of this particular working is ' that it. is farther west than any other in '",, the mine, and is it virgin country of » good class.' Not a tap of work has been i'.> , .done, either above or below, so that any ' , discovery here "would have its value. At, the road' level of the same mine, a cross- ■ cut is within about 30ft of where it is •expected to cut the Swedish Crown reef.The Reserve lead, coming out from th« '- Queen of the North mine, should also be to hand ■ here soon. From the Swedish- , Crown, tiibnters, in the early days, got , near the boundary of the Queen of the North 900oz of gold in about six weeks. It is calculated that fully 9000oz have been, taken out of this hill above the_ 300 ft level, 71b of stone on one occasion yielding 290z. Tributers are now getting encourag- ' - ing. results in some of the old workings. , NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITIES. It is impossible to avoid the impression, - after an inspection of the Tokatea Hill, that opportunities there are being neglect- , ed. The two properties referred to in', __ this article are practically the only ones ■working. Amongst the areas lying idle .. are those of the Harbour View, on ■ Coromandel side, and the Pride of Tokatea; k , on the Kennedy Buv side. They lie to the south of the Roval Oak, and between that mine and the Tokate.i. In the past? , both have been worked on veins similar Ut .those in their neighbours, and, like them, occurring, altogether on the footwall aider ~ of the Big reef. From the Pride of ToW** tea (in the Hauraki Associated section), .. over £11,000 worth of gold was won from' . the Rainbow reef and footwall leader be* tween 1890 and 1900. At present tli«*» , " are lewis opened up from both sides of to* , hill, .connecting the two mines, whictt . could be worked as one. Th*- r c w o, } f level in the Harbour View, which is !1S || 1000 ft.. ami in which reefs have beali «"* ■-",-' but not driven upon. These would t fi"'*,, ■;> about 200 ft of hacks on .the. JHauftda M* ': '-0 L sociated run oS gold. ■ '■ M <f