that
would erect a big mill, and go to work in the George shaft, with a view
to extending operations to the other lines of the series in the vicinity.
One of these, known as Kearns', is said to have averaged 15 dwts. to
the ton for 100 yards along its line; another, the Eclipse, is said to
have yielded 18 dwts. to the ton from works down 86 feet.
Nearer
the town, a lode known as the Post Office has been worked down for 70
feet, and along its line for 150 feet, for yields said to have averaged
half-an-onnce. Further east about 10 chains, another formation
belonging to the same system of lodes, and called the Billy Nuts, is
said to have yielded 6 dwts. to the ton down to 40 feet. Two chains
east again another and parallel line of formation is said to have
yielded an average of 9 dwts. to the ton to a depth of 80 feet by a
length of 600 feet.
West
of the town many lodes have been opened for patches (just scratched),
and then left. South of the town, near the point of the great
dislocation of strata, several outcrops have yielded rich returns, but
nowhere has real mining been carried on. I noticed dyke material at all
points, and the gold-slate is associated with all the lode systems. In
the railway cuttings between Bealiba and Goldsborough an arch and a
trough in the strata are to be seen, and in both the many lines of
drainage known as indicators show very plainly. Bealiba has some
hundreds of thousands of tons of untouched cement beds to be worked
yet. The depth of overburden and the water have, it is said, been the
drawbacks, but now that pump-gears are so cheap and effective, this
cement ought not to remain unnoticed.
Five
or six miles south-west from the town there has been a little sampling
of quartz outcrops in the low ranges near the River Avoca at Arch-dale.
This locality is said to have the main ancient stream from Avoca Valley
passing through it. At a place where slate and sandstone spurs to
ranges come within a quarter of a mile of each other, a line of bores
was put down, the deepest of which is said to have been 180 feet from
the surface. This narrow part in an ancient valley has been cut through
gold-bearing lode country. In fact, the whole course of the present
Avoca River here is in country which promises golden washdirt deposits.
There is opportunity here for the local residents to put shoulders to
the wheel, as did the farmers at Nine-Mile, in their valley. The depth
is only 180 feet, and even if a shaft be put down on " high ground,"
300 or 400 feet of driving would take the picks into this ancient
gutter. The nature of the lode structure—in such splendid slate
country—-is in favour of good deposits of washdirt being found.
