OUR MINERAL RESOURCES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1584, 1 April 1882, Page 11

OUR MINERAL RESOURCES.

Mr A. M'Kay, Government geologist, left Dunedin for Wellington on Monday, having been on a short visit to the Carrick Range, Nevis, and Mullocky districts for the purpose, we believe, of inspecting and reporting on the mineral lodes existing in these localities. His report will in the first place be submitted at

headquarters, but in the meantime we learn on first-iJass authority that he is of opinion that a number ot reefs bearing a fair mineral prospect exiiifc in tho vicinity of the lode already discovered at Carrick itange, and they appear to traverse the country in the immediate vicinity, which bears evident traces of being strictly a mineral one. At all events it is easily distinguished from tho ordinary country on the opposite side of the range, and it runs in a direction N.W. by S.E., or precisely the same as that of tho lode-line in tho mineral rocks or motal deposits of the Waitahuna district, which abounds in copper, antimony, cinnabar, iron, and manganese, somo of which motals arc now being treated by a Dunodin company with considerable success. In connection with tho , Nevis antimony -lodo there exists at Bannockburn, close by, a brown coal of good quality, which Vv-ould prove, very valuable in the reduction of ore. In the Upper Nevis there are .deposits of very fine clayey iron ore, which may at some future time come to be of use. Alluvial cinnabar is found at tho source of the Nevis in the Nokomai Saddle, and not far distantvthere are indications of tungstate of lime, which has hitherto been seen only in the Lake Wakatipu district, where thero is a fine lode. , ,Mr Jktchan and party have secured a lease of. , the ground, and are now taking steps to develop tho mineral. At Mullocky Gully, near tho spot whore tho quartz-battery was recently erected, there are certainly several well-defined quartz-reefs carrying small quantities of antimony, and during the time the battery was at work the average yield of gold was about half an ounce to the ton. There is no doubt, however, that the reefs have beon very inefficiently testod, and in the hands of enterprising speculators more satisfactory results would have ensued. Mr M'Kay was accompanied on his rounds by Mr Buchan.