GOLD MINING IN THE SHOTOVER RIVER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21831, 19 December 1932, Page 10

GOLD MINING IN THE SHOTOVER RIVER

TO THE EUITOK. Slit, —In the Daily Times of December 1 appeared a very interesting account of large quantities of gold having been won from the Shotover River by Mr A. E. Smith. It is not usual for miners, particularly the Shotover miners, to divulge to the public their gold earnings. Their business in that respect up to the present has always been jealously guarded. It would be very interesting to know why there is now a departure from the miner’s golden rule. The particular part of Mr Smith’s claim where this large amount of gold has been won has now become unworkable with the elevator on account of so much water soaking into the paddock as to give the pump too much to do. We practical miners know that a dredge, no matter how up-to-date in design it may be, will not lift gold from the rocky bottom and crevices of the Shotover

River. A new up-to-date suction electric dredge was built on this very spot just a few years ago. It is still there intact, having cost some unfortunates some £40,000 or £50,000. This particular dredging syndicate was not able to carry on—a fact that was predicted by all the old miners in the district. Little or no local money was involved, thus shelving the wisdom of the local people. This dredge lay abandoned on this claim for a long period, and finally it came into the possession of Mr A. E. Smith. It is rumoured that out of a small workable area of the claim, about an acre, he has procured a fair amount of gold in recent years. The only definite known amount came out of the last two paddocks, being 4170 z, and for some reason this return has been made public. All the workable beaches on the Shotover River have been worked by the only known method so far, and that is _by hydraulic elevating and wing damming. A wall made of stakes, stones, and scrub is built up the stream in or near the centre to turn it to one side to enable the dry side to be worked by pump and elevator. When that side is done the river is turned to the worked side, and the other side is then worked. This process can only be done when the river is low. , , , To get the gold on the rock bottom it ia very necessary to see the bottom. There is no ‘doubt that good patches of gold are lying in parts of the river, which so far are unworkable, but the all-important question is how to go about getting it. The unworked part of the river, wlucn up to the present has beaten the most practical miners, is narrow and gorgy, and the slightest rise in the river hinders all operations. Mr Smith has now joined up with what, is described in- your issue of December 1 as the “ equally famous claim ” of Murray and Robertson, which is immediately above his, and this new syndicate has decided to put the joint claims on the market. No doubt reports of these 4170 z will be published in all the papers throughout New Zealand. This seems an opportune time for that. The Government is assisting people to mine for gold. In every paper one reads an account of gold being discovered in some part of the province. This no doubt will tend to excite the people to speculation. I would suggest that Messrs Murray and Robertson take out in shares the value they are asking for their interests. That would be a gesture of good faith in the business. Mr Smith knows the Shotover as well as anybody, and is a practical miner, and it is very extraordinary that he should say that an up-to-date dredge would get more gold in a few weeks than he did by elevating in two or three years. As far as my knowledge goes, six dredges have at one time or another been built on the Shotover River, and not one of them has given a good account of itself. My observation of the Shotover, of the nature of the country, and of the sudden rising of the river leads me to believe that if the river cannot be wing-dammed and elevated, the only way to work it is by tunnelling in order to change the course of the stream, if that process is not too expensive. A revival of genuine mining would bo a good thing for the district just now. But in spite of all the stimulation of interest in mining here and elsewhere, I am told the Ic&al people will not be enticed into any scheme about which they are not quite sure.—l am, etc., December 12. Old Timer.