SILVER-LEAD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19182, 27 May 1924, Page 8

SILVER-LEAD.

A NEW MELD PROSPECTOR'S FIND (Fbom Oim Ow» Cobbespondent.) SYDNEY, May 15. When in May of last year J. C. Miles, a prospector, discovered more by accident than anything else the now silver-lead field in the biy Cloncurry mineral belt in Northern Queensland —he was actually looking for copper—his thoughts flew to a little niece in Victoria named Isobel, or Isa>, for short, after he had pegged out his lease, occupying an eminence amidst rugged hills and plains. Thus the lease and the actual field itself is to-day known as Mount Isa. The original lease is now merged in the operations of the parent company, the Mount Isa Mines (Ltd.). Miles holds interest in the company running into five figures, and if the all the bright, hopes held out for tht> field are realised he will be wealthy beyond his wildest dretms. Another of the best leases on the field was f disposed of originally for a bullock's hide. That lease to-day is ono of a big group over which an option has been secured for £25,000. The option over the lease itself runs out at about £6OOO. The remoteness of the field can be understood from the fact that it is served by air mail. In order to spend a brief day and a-half there recently a party from oydney were travelling for 16 days. By those competent to express an opinion, the field, on the surface showing, and on the gouger ore. that is,. the ore that was most easily worked for the quickest return by the original prospectors, is the best discovery* made in Australia since Broken Hill startled the world. The permanency of the field, however, can only be definitely determined by the present developmental work. On the surface the field certainly suggests immense possibilities. ■ The quebtion is whetner the ore bodies will live to a depth. If they do, the field will unquestionably bo a big thing. The field, which has the backing in the main of influential Sydney capital, covers an immense area, and even on the surface there is profitable work for a fairly long period. Already there are about 350 people on the field. If the field bears out, underground, the results on tlw surface, it will be a wonderful thing for Queensland, which has been under the shadow of a mining depression for some years. Silver, lead, and zinc deposits are generally found in intimate association with one another; nut, strangely enough, there is, as far as can be learned, u complete absence of zinc in the Mount Isa deposits This is an advantage, for it will reduce the cost of metallurgical treatment. If. the field proves on development to be the next host thing since Broken Hill, then, its importance will be unquestioned. The products of Broken Hill and district, by the way, have returned dividends of the value of £26,500,000 approximately. The discovery of Mount Isa by an obscure prospector recalls the fact that the rich Broken Hill lode was discovered by a boundary rider. This might easily have happened also at Mount Isa, for the field is part of an immense cattle run. The only trouble is that cattle could not live there for a day, for it is one immense tract of porcupine grass a very prickly grass that leave 3an unmistakable impressThus cattle never went there, nor did boundary riders or stockmen. Perhaps it was Nature's way of protecting her riches. Nature, however, forgot to take into account a prospector named Miles. Everyone now walks at Mount Isa with his eyes on the ground —with his head down and his heart up. They are looking for possible fresh discoveries.