A RICH BEEF IN THE OLD MAN RANGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2205, 4 June 1896, Page 20

A RICH BEEF IN THE OLD MAN RANGE.

We hear on undoubted authority that Messrs Parker, Klliott, and Todd have struck very rich gold in tbeir* reef at Campbell's Gully, Old Man Range. The party sank a shaft 50ft deep on the line of reef, and could find the colour all the way down. As the shaft got deeper, the water became so troublesome tbat it was decided, before closing down for the winter, to open out 100 ft further west on tbe reef, at a spot where Mr D. Parker, at a depth of 20ft, struck an exceptionally rich lode dipping west, some time before the present company started operations. This lode was followed down a few feet huther with very encouraging results. About 201b of quaitz was crushed and washed off, and gave Idwt of coarse gold, together with a nice nugget weighing a little over 2dwt. Half a ton of quartz was promiscuously taken out from tbe top to the bottom of the shaft and sent to Dunedin to cruch. Experts who have examined it estimate it to yield 20oz to the ton. The precious metal can be peen f/eely with the naked eye. The reef varies from 14 to 30 inches in width, running east and west, and dippius; north, between well-defined walls, in solid country, free from slips, which augurs well for the permanency of the lode. The company have purchased a pump to cope with the water, and also intend to erect a battery as soon in the spring as King Frost loosens bis iron grip on the mountain. The water right consists of six heada from Campbell's Gully, which can be brought on at an elevation sumciently high to drive all the machinery. - The old road made by the Government from Shingle Creek to the Waikaia Bush enables excellent birch timber to be brought to the mine at a very low cost, the bush being orTy six miles ' distant. This company's success h»8 led to four other distinct reefs being pegged off, and two claims— one at each end of Parker's reef,— making seven claims in all. As the boom is just catching on, a large number of other reefs will for a certainty bo pegged off in the spring. The ground being covered with snow, nothing more can be done this winter. There are at least 20 other reefs in addition to those just mentioned known to some ot the old diggers on the bill. Tbat there are reefs on tbe Old Man— and rich ones, too— is asserted by all miners who know the country, but through lack of enterprise and capital actually nothing has been done in the way of prospecting, excepting Messrs Kitchen and Nicholsoos claim (worked many years buck). It w»s abandoned owing to its inaccessible situation on the mountain and the consequent high cost of everything brought to the mine, coupled with the high rates of wages ruling in those days, and the primitive methods of saving gold in comparison with the present up-to-date, machinery and cyanide. Nearly all the gold won on "the" alluvial diggings in this locality is "coarse reef gold; 6ften .intermingled with quartz, showing unmistakably that primarily it came from reefs close by. Roxburgh miners are sanguine as to the prospects of this field from a reefing point of view, and it has already proved it&elf a rich alluvial diggings, for it is estimated that over a ton of gold has been won from Campbell's and Potter's Gullies alone. Parker's reef runs right through Campbell's Gully, and through the hill into the head of Potter's. This reef is also said to be on the same line which crops out • at the Fourteen-mile Beach on the Molyneux, ancl-, is supposed to run right across into the Nobbys.