GOLD AT NEW GUINEA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19783, 2 November 1927, Page 12

GOLD AT NEW GUINEA.

REEF SYSTEM DISCOVERED PROSPECTS CONSIDERED GOOD. TRANSPORT A DIFFICULTY. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. A. and N.Z. SYDNEY, Nov. 1. The Warden of the New Guinea goldfields reports that as a result of adventurous visits to many parts of the auriferous area he believes tremendous mineral wealth will be obtained from the fields. He says the alluvial miners have hardly touched their claims yet. No underground work has been attempted, but a line of reef 30ft. wide has been discovered. It was traced by the outcrop for five miles. Prospectors have expressed the belief (although the Warden did not identify himself with their opinion) that the fields contained £12,000,000 worth of gold. He made what he considered to be a very conservative estimate of the value of the reef system and reached the conclusion that it would yield 20ozs. of gold to the ton at a value of £2 4s an ounce. The stone could easily be worked. In the Edie Creek specimens had been found assaying 70 per cent, of gold, but they were of earlier age than the newlydiscovered reef system. Some prospectors believed the field would prove to be richer than Ivalgoorlie, Western Australia. New Guinea is a country of enormous wealth, says the Warden. Almost every kind of mineral has been discovered there. Prospectors are obtaining platinum as well as gold and other valuable minerals. There are also many indications that the country is oil-bea,ring. He had been astonished to discover at an altitude of 3000 ft. millions of acres of wonderful country, grassed similarly to Northern and Western Queensland and admirably suitable for sheep-raising. New Guinea, says the official, is a land where there are no droughts, flies, wild dogs or pests of any kind. It is well drained and the climate is dry. Discussing the difficulties experienced by prospectors, he says the absence of machinery makes anything but the most primitive methods of gold-winning impossible. Six aeroplanes at present carry passengers, mails and gold between the fields, and the sea, but they are unsuitable, excepL for comparatively light loading. One company is obtaining a larger type of plane from England, capable of carrying heavier loading. It will probably be possible when these large machines arrive to convey to the field the parts of a battery. The future of the fields to a great extent depends upon transportation by aeroplane.