THE NEW QUARTZ DISCOVERY AT CARRICK RANGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1583, 25 March 1882, Page 21

THE NEW QUARTZ DISCOVERY AT CARRICK RANGE.

Regarding the new discovery that is causing considerable stir at the Bannockburn, we have obtained the following particulars :— The reef is an ordinary quartz lode, measuring two feet between the walls, and carrying 18 inches of golden stone. It occurs in the left-hand branch of Smith's Gully, and a few chains south of the famous Heart of Oak claim. The gully immediately below the outcrop of the new discovery was very rich. In the early days of Smith's Gully a party of four men cleared £1500 a man in a few months. Some few years later, about 1872, Blanchard and Buchan got a patch in the same place, which had been overlooked by the first party. Since the Carrick Range water was brought in, the same ground has been sluiced with good results. As the gold was ragged, and often adhering to quartz, it was evident that a rich quartz-reef was not far off ; consequently a very large amount of prospecting was done in the vicinity, party after party giving up the search in despair; and now, years after, the outcrop has been accidentally stumbled upon. Two barrowfuls of quartz from the outcrop have given 5 dwt of loose gold. The claim has been visited by numbers of experienced reefers, some of whom argue that it is a continuation of the old Heart of Oak lode; and the opinions of what the stone is likely to yield vary so much that it would not be safe to approximate it. The richest stone found is hi an open cutting made by the Carrick race in Buchan and party's ground, some 70 or 80 feet from Rintoul and party's north boundary. Little is yet known as to the extent of tho shoot of gold, but Rintoul and party's underlay-shaft is, up to latest accounts, still on tho gold. Tho quartz from this shaft will be crushed either at tfie. Star and. Oak bafc

tery, a few hundred yards down the hill, or at Bedford's battery, which is about the same distance from the claim up the hill. Buchan and party are calling for tenders for sinking a shaft 150 feet, and unless the winter sets in very early they will be able to get opened-out underneath before the snow comes.