CLUTHA GOLD QUEST

Taranaki Daily News, 27 January 1933, Page 9

CLUTHA GOLD QUEST

COMPANY TO BE FORMED.

' CAPITAL OF £250,000 SUGGESTED.

London, Dec. 15.

For some months rumours have been abroad regarding the formation of a company to work for gold in the Clutha River, Central Otago. It is now possible to report that a concession has been granted to a certain organisation as yet unnamed to dredge for gold on a nineteen-mile reach bf the river between Cromwell and Alexandra, and on certain flats between Alexandra and Clyde. A prospectus will be issued early in January, and the intention is to raise capital amounting to £250,000. The first call on the capital will be for the construction of a powerful and up-to-date dredge of about 300 horse-power. The two promoters of this company are Mr. Norman M. Dudgeon, M.1.M.M.,. and Mr. A. Hedley Williams, A.1.M.M., M.lnst.P.T. Mr. Dudgeon is not unknown in New Zealand. He was manager of the Waitekauri claim for a year in 1897, and, returning again from Australia, he became general manager of the New Inkerman Mine, on the West Coast, from 1903 to 1906. Altogether, he spent five and a Half years in the Dominion. In Australia he was general manager of the Victoria Court Mine, and the Daylesford Mine ,and consulting engineer for the Star and the Al Mines in Victoria. His mining activities later took him to Rhodesia, Mexico and Canada. During the war he worked for Messrs, Vickers in connection with the manufacture of paravanes and tanks. In recent years he has had a business unconnected: with mining in the city, but together with Mr. Williams, he has formed what is known as the N.M.D. Syndicate, which is sinking an oil well in Sussex. This well is already 1300 ft in depth, but Quality oil is not expected until it is down 1800 to 2000 ft. The G.W.D. Syndicate, with a well 2300 ft in Germany, is another of their ventures. Mr Williams, whose family nave been in the tin mining industry in Cornwall for generations, has also had wide experience of mining, mainly in Burma. FIFTY FOOT DREDGING.

These two promoters base their hopes for the future of the Clutha on several grounds. First, the recent draining of the river and the mining activities that followed showed that gold is to be found at a depth that was never reached by the bld dredges. Second, the old dredges averaged about 60oz a week. When the river was low, however, through climatic conditions and the dredging was carried deeper into the bed of the river, the takings increased to as much as lOOoz a week. . The new dredge in contemplation will be able to dig to a dept., of 50ft below the existing bed of the stream, thus Working ground that was never touched by the old 80 horse-power dredges. The dredge will be steam-driven, and the coal used will be the lignite obtainable in the locality. Associated-with Mr. Dudgeon and Mi. Williams in their enterprise are Mr. F. Lysnar and Mr. W. Tong, of Auckland.