GOLD MINING IN TUAPEKA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21645, 16 May 1932, Page 8

GOLD MINING IN TUAPEKA

DEVELOPMENT WORK AT \ WETHERSTONES VISIT BY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE VALUABLE AND INTERESTING EXPERIMENTAL WORK. About 50 members of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce, representative of many branches of commercial enterprise in the city, paid a visit to the gold development scheme of Industries, Ltd., at the conglomerate deposits neap Wetherstones, which comprise the original site of the operations of the Golden Crescent Sluicing Company. Here the hydraulic sluicing which was carried out for many years by the Golden Crescent Company has been replaced by more modern methods which involve the mining of the conglomerate after the manner of coal, and its subsequent disintegration and washing. Although it was emphasised to the visitors that the work now in hand j represents merely experimental operations calculated to determine whether the gold which undoubtedly exists in these deposits can be extracted economically, the officials and promoters of the company exhibited a very real optimism with regard to the final outcome of the trials which appears to be generally shared by both rural and urban residents of the Tuapeka district, who see in the present scheme possibilities for the revival of gold mining'in the district. . _ • \ On arrival at the claim of Industries, Ltd., early jn the afternoon the party was met by the Mayor M Lawrence (Mr J. K. Simpson) and representatives of the company. Mr Simpson addressed a few words of welcome to the visitors, expressing the gratification of the district at the interest which the’commercial community was displaying in the new venture. He stressed th- great importance of any enterprise which had for its object the revival of gold mining, not only in Tuapeka, but anywhere in New and expressed the view that a successful issue to the company’s operations on that particular claim w r ould have a profound effect on the industry throughout the whole district. Personally, he had great hopes of success, and he could assure his hearers that the whole district was watching with the greatest interest the work that was being carried out. \ . < The president of the Chamber of Commerce (Mr T. C. Ross) briefly replied, thanking the company for the opportunity that had been afforded members of the chamber to visit the claim, and assuring the people of the district, as well as the promoters of the coihpany, of the intense interest which the city of Dunedin entertained with respect to such sorelyneeded development as was represented by the operations of Industries, Ltd. The party- was then divided into_ small groups, each of which was placed in the charge of. ah official or member of the company, and conducted on a tour of the plant. Every process and stage of_ the work was clearly and lucidly explained, and the visitors were given an instructive demonstration of gold-winning under modern conditions on a site which was generally regarded as unprofitable when the mining industry had only the early principles of hydraulic sluicing upon which to rely. The operations demonstrated commenced with the mining of the ‘conglomerate under precisely the same conditions as those under which coal is won, at the foot of a shaft sunk' obliquely into# the earth to a depth of approximately 800 feet. Here the conglomerate is blasted by a specially proportioned explosive, which accomplishes a great deal of what was originally entrusted to a crushing plant. The material is hauled out of the bowles of the earth in trucks which convey it up a tramway to an ingeniouslyconstructed tower, which completes the disintegration of the cement by a process of dropping and friction, and renders it down to a sort of, sludge, which is then put through the washing boxes for the extraction of the gold. The»explosive used pulverises a great deal of the conglomerate, and the tower apparatus finishes off the work; the material as it emerges from the foot of the tower com- ■ prising both sludge and stones. The stones are non-goldbearing, and need no crushing. After leaving the washing troughs the material is conveyed across a system of tables, the coconut matting of which arrests and holds the finest particle of gold that may exist in the cement. The work at the present time is largely experimental. Operations to date have convinced the company of the existence of .gold in payable quantities in the deposits, and it remains mow for the engineers to devise the most effective, speedy, and economical way of producing the conglomerate for treatment, and producing it from the richest strata of the field. The sinking of shafts and bores in various parts of the claim is expected to supply the necessary information concerning the most payable material. It .is on the result of these operations that the ultimate success of the venture depends, but among those familiar with progress to date there appeal to be no serious doubt as to the final result; It has been found that, notwithstanding the experimental chacacter of the early operations and_the high cost of development trials,- that the gold already won will just about return the cost of production. , After leaving the claim of .Industries, Ltd., the party was conducted, through; Gabriel’s Gully to the site of the old sluicing claim of the Blue Spur Company, now completely deserted, save for the limited activities of a small group of men at the lowest point of the valley. From the crumbling veranda of the desolate and dilapidated office of the company, which overlooks the huge basin that the nozzles carved out of the hillside, the visitors were asked to visualise the scenes of desperate endeavour and feverish activity which were enacted there in the {lays or the earlv gold rushes when nearly 10,000 people filled the , valley • and sought fortune in its brittle earth. It is many years now since the little borough of Lawrence drew its commission of life and trade and excitement from the two million ounces of gold which were so easily won from this gully, and it seems scarcely credible that such times of prosperity and plenty can ever return to the insignificant hamlet which for so long has carried the appearance of those dead towns of the past so common in Central Otago, but there arc those among the townspeople and farming community to-day who have high hopes of at least a partial return of such conditions. ’ .. / There can be no doubt that great issues hang on the successful operation of the claim now held by Industries. Ltd. Cement deposits of the kind now being_ worked exist in many parts of the district from Wetherstones to the sea, and it is certain that in the event of successful development at the Crescent, all these fields will quickly be opened up. Before leaving Lawrence Mr Ross and the Mayor of Dunedin (Mr R. S. Black) returned thanks to the company for the courtesy extended to the visitors, and Mr J. 15. M'Kinlay replied on behalf of the company.