GOLDFIELD IN FIJI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18663, 20 March 1924, Page 5

GOLDFIELD IN FIJI.

REPORT. BY GEOLOGIST. PAYABLE VALUES POSSIBLE. OPTIMISM OF RESIDENTS. [FROM OTTB own correspondent.] ' SUVA. Mar. 10. Much of the first excitement which" the discovery of gold at Yanawai, in the Savu Savu district, on the largo island of Vanua Leva, developed has died down. But those who have visited the field and have a good prima facie knowledge of the prospects are still as keenly interested in it as ever. The report of Dr. Henderson, the geological surveyor, who examined the field at the request of tha Fiji Government, has been made public, and is promising enough to satisfy several, local people, who have inspected the land and who have decided to further prospect it. A local syndicate has been formed with" this object in view. The most recent specimens which have been brought in justify tha assertion that if such ore were shown in Australia there would be an immediate rush for some of the country from which the stone comes. Dr. Henderson, in his report, sums up by saying:. "The geological conditions obtaining at Yanawai differ in no essential feature from those of highly profitable goldfields in other parts of tha> word, and athovgh the mixture of decomposed rock and quartz veinlets exposed in Cxesswell's working can certainly not be worked at a profit there may occur in the immediate vicinity or in some other part of the district a deposit of commercial value. In the writer's t opinion the small quartz vein outcropping in Echo Creek should be followed. .both north and south by prospecting drives. The area north and south along the crush zone should be prospected by trenches of short adits, and any quartz veins followed." 1 '< After defining certain areas the geologist concludes:; "The whole- of this area is more or less propylitiied, in some parts • intensely, and the spurs north and sooth of the Navaniroro should be systematically prospected for quartz lodes." The conclusion that the field 'is a good, promising prospecting one is shared by practical men who have seen it. The assays went from nil up ta over 6oz. free gold.