SILVER MINES NORTH OF AUCKLAND.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8644, 3 December 1889, Page 2

SILVER MINES NORTH OF AUCKLAND.

RESULT OF CRUSHING VERY SMALL.

FURTHER PARTICULARS OF FIND

Ipkr press association.! Wellington, December 3. — The Government has received a telegram from Auckland to the effect that an assay of ore from the Puhipuhi silvermine was made at Wairongomai and Te Aroha, and gave at the rate of 260z to the ton, The Minister of Lands considers it probable that this return is more correct than any other that has been submitted.

The locality in which the silver deposits are found lies in a piece of broken country, a short distance to the northward of the basaltic plateau of Puhipuhi kauri forest. To the south, north-west, and eastward the country has been disturbed with old igneous eruptions, and according- to all our received notions of geology to this disturbance is due the finding of the minerals. Mr James Frater, a member of the firm of Frater Brothers, who accompanied Mr Melville as far as Whangarei in order to examine into the nature of the discoveries j of silver ore in the Puhipuhi district, has j been interviewed by a Auckland Berald reporter in order to obtain his opinions on the reported discoveries. He said that " I went with a guide, entering the block from the eastern side, find after we had travelled about 10 miles from the Opuawhanga end of the block we reached the camp. On going across the country I found reefs cropping out in all directions, but did not stay to examine them. We got to the Prospectors' claim, and I examined several lodes varying from three inches up to eight or nine feet, and in instances I found the small ones more kindly and running- in good sandstone country, but the large ones seemed flinty, and such as I j should not care to touch. The country, I may say, is good sandstone, and possesses \ deep spurs, so that it is capitally situated for prospecting. I came to the conclusion that the loades are not silver ores. They are quartz and gold ores, carrying silver, but silver does not seem to me to be carried through the reefs. It is rather in patches, and my impression is that they must find gold before these loades can be made payable. How far silver is carried through them we cannot estimate, except by the return received from the test at Waiorongomai, and this I do not think reliable. 1 believe that the return of 1740z silver and 13dwt gold will be still further reduced. There is nothing authentic about it. The bullion is not shown, nor could I get any information on the process of treatment. The place is at present closed up except to four prospectors. It is a district which, I think, is worth a trial, but I would advise people not to go there at present, for they can get no information of a reh'able character, and the district is shut up."