therefore
a cross reef, cutting different beds on its downward extension. The
reef cuts right through the country rocks, and is auriferous, and
contains stibnite (sulphide of antimonv\ but only where it crosses a
certain belt of country. The beds pitch northerly, and the shoot of
gold pitches in the same direction. The present shaft was sunk so as to
cut the shoot by driving northwards. This has been done, and excellent
ore, consisting of auriferous stibnite and quartz, is being mined. The
depth of the shaft is 247 feet. The reef is about 8 inches in
thickness, and consists partly of quartz and partly of stibnite. An
interesting feature is that the gold, which is generally coarse—in
pieces up to the size of a pea—varies in quality in the quartz and the
stibnite. In the former it is «jf light colour, bright, and evidently
contains much silver. In the stibnite the gold is dull, of dark,
burnish-yellow colour, and scarcely looks like gold until rubbed. Some
of this ore has nroved extremely rich, and yields of over 15 ounces of
gold per ton have been obtained. Centre-country is to the east of the
shaft, and the shoot, if it continue its present course, must Teach it.
Besides
the Belltopper reef, there is another reef further to the west, running
parallel with it. Some exploratory work has been done on it, in the
hope of cutting a productive shoot. The most probable site for such a
shoot would be where the reef cuts the same zone of rock as the
Bell-topper shoot is in. To reach this means sinking a winze, either
vertically, after calculating where the intersection would be; or by
sinking to the west, on the zone of productive rock, or to the east, on
the quartz reef, until it cuts the right zone. The casing of the reef
in this mine grea'tlv resembles an " indicator," and the safest plan is
to follow the indicator until the quartz vein or veins intersect it.
Missing Link Adit.—The
adit is close by, and situate on the northern bank of a small creek. At
280 feet along the adit a lode was worked, and this is the only reef
worked in it. Centre-country was cut in the adit, but 110 work has been
done, either by winze or rise, to prove whether reefs are developed
along it. To (he north of the Panama shaft, on the saddle where the
road goes along over the range, a considerable amount of work has been
done along the course of a reef, that appears to be along the strike of
the slates and sandstones. This neighbourhood is deserving of further
exploration, and the Missing Link adit might be used to test the
continuation of some of the lines of reef in the old workings higher up
the hill.
[Report sent in 6th July, 1905]
