Page image

C—2

Macalisters Reef Outcrop on North-western Slope of Mount Judah Above the Bucklerburn Bonnie Jean Aerial Ropeway Terminal: Sluicing operations were carried out and the lens,e of ore was extracted. This lense was small and did not come up to expectations and operations were suspended before the end of the year. Eureka Reef Line, situated below the Bonnie Jean terminal of the Bucklerburn aerial ropeway : Prospecting operations failed to locate ore and operations ceased early in the year. Hercules Mines {Geo. Ross and Party), (on the Lower Southern Slopes of Mount Mcintosh). — Intermittent prospecting operations have failed to locate anything of importance. Muddy Terrace Mine, Upper Bees Valley. —Active mining operations have been continued during the working season and good ore has been located in this slipped country. Prospecting operations have also been carried out in the Upper Bonnie Jean Gorge, but nothing of importance has yet been located. The adjustment of the exchange-rate adversly affected the price of concentrates, lhe price ot concentrates was high during the early part of the year, then the price dropped because of the sale of Bolivian concentrates. The price stiffened again during the latter part of the year, but the demand ceased and the chief buyers in New Zealand (Messrs. Dalgety and Co., Ltd.) finished the year with a considerable quantity of concentrates unsold. Lake Wakatipu. —No work has been carried out at the Twelve-mile or Taos Creek Section. Skippers, Dynamo Flat (Left-hand Branch, Skippers Creek).—The Mount Aurum Syndicate mining and treatment operations were carried out at Curries Reef during the summer and autumn months of 1948. Copper Creek, Mount Aurum Basin. —Further prospecting operations were carried out, and the Copper Creek mining party then decided to purchase the three-stamp battery at Symes Reef, Pruitlands. This battery has been dismantled and conveyed by lorry to Skippers, where it will have to be packed up Skippers' Creek and the Terrace Track to Copper Creek. The track is now being reconditioned and the plant will be packed in. Crystal Beef, Near the Head of Satvyers Gully, Skippers— -The heavy rainfall has caused ■extensive flooding in Sawyers Gully and the dam pipe-line and treatment plant have been damaged. Flood Burn, Upper Shotover. —No work has been carried out in this area. The Schieb-Sutherland Party. —The installation of the pipe-line was completed, but because of the failure of the dam the pipe-line had to be shifted and another dam built. Operations were then commenced in the bed of the Shotover River upstream from where the Deep Creek Mining Co. ceased mining operations, when a flood came down burying the elevator and washing away the sluice-boxes. A further attempt was made, but repeated floods caused a cessation of mining operations until such times as the river becomes normal. The Atley Bros., who operate a river claim in the Shotover River Gorge between the Long Gully and Moke Creek junctions, have continued to operate when river conditions have been suitable. Moonlight Creek. —Preparations are being made to open up an area on Darkeys Terrace on the western terrace between the Moke and the Moonlight Creek. Arrow Biver. —The Golden Arrow Gold Mining Co. operated during the early part of the year on the Avestern side of the Arrow River upstream from the Bush Creek junction. Operations were then suspended and the company went into voluntary liquidation. Vincent County V Long Drive Syndicate, Gum-trees Downstream From Roaring Meg Junction, Kawarau Gorge.— Intermittent work has been carried on by the tributer. Gees Flat, Kawarau Gorge. —The Homer party have continued the tail-race-reconditioning workThey have also transported a complete sluicing plant from the Sandhills, Upper Shotover, to this mine, and this plant is stored near the Cromwell Development Co. weir. Nevis Valley. — Williamsons Mine, Stone Huts, Camerons Gully, Upper Nevis : This mine has been closed, the elevator, sluicing plant, and pipe-lines dismantled and removed. I. McLean has installed a small sluicing plant in Camerons Gully and is now sluicing a shallow auriferous. deposit. ifhittons Creek : All the plant and equipment have now been dismantled and transported via the Upper Nevis to Garston, and thence the major portion has been transported to the New Guinea Goldfields. Mid-Nevis, Old Township Workings : The McLean party has been actively employed sluicing and elevating alongside the road at the northern end of the old workings during the working season. D. Adie' continues to ground sluice at the downstream end of the old workings during the working season. During the year the old antimony workings on Antimony Saddle, situated on a spur between the right-hand branch of Pipeclay Gully and Long Gully and situated approximately six miles north of the Bannock burn Post-office, have been investigated, but no ore has been mined and investigations are suspended.

42