HUGE SILVER NUGGETS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19048, 27 June 1924, Page 10

HUGE SILVER NUGGETS

WORLD’S RICHEST MINE. ENGINEER’S GOOD FORTUNE. CLAIM GOT FOR £20,000. NOW WORTH A MILLION. (Correspondent N.Z. Herald). TORONTO, May 31. Fourteen years ago an important Canadian bank went smash because it squandered a million dollars—nearly all its liquid assets —in a “wild cat” silver claim in Northern Ontario. Today that “wild cat” claim is confidently described as the richest silver mine, not merely in Ontario, already famous for its silver, but in the whole world. Three hundred feet from the point where the bank spent its last dollar rich ore was struck, and the Keeley mine, whose name for more than a decade had been associated with tragedy and even disrepute, took the high road to fame. During the last few months developments at the Keeley camp have been the sensation of Canadian mining, despite the opening up of new gold and silver mining areas in the interval since Keeley was notorious. At the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, a point of interest is a silver nugget, perhaps as big as a horse’s head. It weighs nearly a ton and is valued at over £3OOO. This choice nugget was taken as it stands from one of the veins in the Keeley property. Since this one was forwarded to London an even larger nugget of solid high'g ra d c silver has been retrieved from the same vein. It is valued at £4BOO.

Previous to the discoveries of the last few months Keeley had already become an important producing mine with a substantial future assured. The vein of the bonanza ore running from two to four feet wide, with its nuggets of almost pure silver, added at once four or five million ounces of silver to the mine’s known resources and placed it in the forefront of silver mines anywhere. The liquidator of the bank that was ruined by its illegal investments in the Keeley mine had a low opinion of the property’s value. He was willing to give an option to anyone for £20,000. If he got that he would congratulate the bank’s creditors on their good luck in saving anything. The property eaine to the attention of Dr. Mackintosh Bell, a young Can adian mining engineer, who had been director of geological survey in New Zealand. He secured the liquidator’s option and interested a London company, the Associated Gold Mines of Western Australia. But the war again interrupted the development of• Keeley. Dr. Bell got his option extended “for the duration,” closed down his works and went overseas. In 1919 it was again touch and go whether work on Keeley would be resumed. But Dr. Bell’s faith was still unshaken, he carried his capitalists with him, and thq final payment was made on the option. Three hundred feet from where the bank stopped working—but in a certain direction, and Dr. Bell had to guess that direction—the vein which spelled success was discovered. And the discoveries made since the first of this year spell not merely success, but fortune. The property that was bought in 1919 for £20,000 now has a market value of £1,000,000 or £1,250,000, and there are optimistic predictions for the future.

A few days ago Queen’s University, the engineer’s alma mater, conferred upon him the degree of L.I.D. Keeley is not the only success that Dr. Bell has been associated with. Vipond, a successful goldmine in the Hollinger area, is another monument to his good judgment.

Dr. Bell’s life-long engineering experience was varied in 1910 when he was one of the party that accompanied Captain Scott on his famous journey to the Antarctic, the journey on which Captain Scott lost his life.

Now properties adjoining Keeley have also jumped into fortune and the district, which is known as South Lorrain, is becoming one of the most famous mining eamps in Canada. Silver Center is the name given the mushroom town that has sprung up and Cohalt, 22 miles away, hopes to enjoy a revivified prosperity.