SEEKING FOR GOLD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 177, 29 July 1932, Page 7

SEEKING FOR GOLD

CENTRAL OTAGO AREAS. MOONLIGHT AND gHOTOVER. AUCKLAND, July 28. Tho gold-mining activities in and about Queenstown, Central Otago, were described yesterday by Mr. R. L. 8. Tudehope, of Queenstown, who is visiting Auckland. Mr, Tudehope, who is interested in a number of mining propositions, said considerable attention had been focussed on the fields in this district in tho past 12 months. Great possibilities were hoped for in connection with the Moonlight Valley, the bed of the Shotover River and the quartz reefing near Skippers. The Moonlight Valley, through which ran the Moonlight River, a tributary of the Shotover, had the largest area of virgin alluvial sluicing ground in the district. Tho auriferous work was in an ancient rock-bound river channel on a terrace about 300 ft. above the present river bed. It was considered by many that the Shotover at one stage flowed down this old channel. The early miners were'able to work only the shallow ground, with the limited quantity of water available. They won considerable quantities of nuggety gold, but the main channel, having a depth of at least 150 ft. of auriferous wash above the rock bottom, was left untouched.

At present there wore two companies operating on this field. One, a Gore syndicate, had a claim near the junction of the Moonlight with the Moke Creek. This claim had been working for a few years and yielding coarse nuggety gold. Three miles above this claim the ground was held by an Auckland company, the Moonlight Extended Gold Sluicing Company, Limited, which commenced operations early this year. The company had a valuable water right. There was sufficient water to give continuous sluicing for 24 hours a day, if required, and an area of sluicing country which would take at least 25 years to work

In regard to the Shotover, practically the whole of the bed of the river had been pegged off. A most pleasing result on this river was the recent discovery by a veteran miner, Mr. N. Oxenbridgc, of a rich patch, details of which had already been published. At Maori Point, a few miles above Mr. Oxenbridgc’s claim, another party had secured several thousand pounds worth of gold since Christinas. Tho portion between these two claims had been secured by a Dunedin syndicate, which proposed to make use of a new method of low-pressure hydraulic elevating.

At Skippers, just below the famous Aspinall’s Terrace, out of which over £200,000 of gold was won from less than 15 acres, another Dunedin company had commenced a tunnel to deviate the Shotover so as to work this portion of the river. In the vicinity of Skippers a Christchurch company had opened up