LURE OF GOLD

Southland Times, Issue 20661, 17 April 1929, Page 6

LURE OF GOLD

WEST COAST PROSPECTORS.

OLD “MORNING STAR” MINE WORK INGS.

For Ihree and a-half years Iwo old and experienced prospectors, Messrs W. E. Robinsion and C. Robinson, incidentally not related, have been working at Te Oneroa, Preservation Inlet, round the site of the "Morning Star” mine which in the early days produced some of the richest quartz deposits in Southland.

At one time the mine numbered 70 men on its pay sheet and produced 600 to 800 ounces of gold per month from ten head of stamps. Eventually the company operating the mine was forced into liquidation from its failure to provide reserve funds for further prospecting. The Messrs Robinson are working in what is really a deposit from the outcrop of the old mine and so far as they have prospected the tests are quite satisfactory. It is their aim to open up a deposit- of alluvial wash below the Morning Star hill. Three faces have been opened up and two prospecting tunnels which have shown good results in the tests, the wash producing from seven pence to 2/6 per yard. The greatest difficulty they have to face is the lack of water. Thus all their water supply has to be reserved for boxing the wash so that none is available for stripping. By ordinary sluicing they could count on making from £1 to 30/- per day, but cannot proceed in this fashion until the water has been piped. The cost of making water available would be from £5OOO to £6OOO. The work has been retarded on this account. In places the prospectors have been working on a false bottom, while in others the wash is over 30 feet deep. From a small portion of tte wash 15 ounces of smelted gold was reclaimed by testing alone. The country itself provides further difficulties for the prospectors. They are working on the flat, but bush and dense undergrowth retards their operations considerably. Sand flies and mosquitoes are regarded as one of the minor pests. They bargain on spending another two years at Te Oneroa to complete prospecting in the area and at the end of that time they hope to float a company to work it efficiently. The first effort to raise funds will probably be made at Christchurch.