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BLACKWATER GROUP.—MARTIN’S LODE-SERIES.
This lode-series is the most southerly in the western section of the Reefton auriferous belt on which any development of importance has occurred. The field is situated about twenty-five miles south from Reefton by road, but in a direct line it is only half that distance.
Snowy Creek Mine.—The first discovery of gold-bearing stone on the line was made in the “nineties” close to Snowy Creek, where a reef averaging 2 ft. wide was found outcropping. A company known as the Snowy Creek United was formed to develop the find in 1898, and a winze was sunk from the outcrop to a depth of 118 ft. In the following year a party of tributers took the property over, and drove a level from this winze, erected a three-stamp battery, and crushed some small parcels of quartz, but the yield was unsatisfactory. In 1900 the company took over the claim again, and did some further prospecting with no better results, and the property was soon afterwards abandoned. During the time the claim was held by the company 159 tons of stone were crushed for a yield of 50 oz. gold, equal to 6·22 dwt. per ton. Some years later the ground came into the hands of the Blackwater Mines, Ltd., which did some further prospecting on it, but the only stone found was narrow and very broken, and did not carry payable values.
Blackwater Mine.—In November, 1905, a party prospecting in the locality with the aid of Government subsidy discovered the outcrop of a small gold-bearing reef in Greek’s Creek, about three-fourths of a mile northerly from the Snowy Creek Company’s workings. Very shortly after making this find the party, which consisted of four men, disposed of their interest in it to Mr. P. N. Kingswell, who, in turn, after doing a little work on it, sold it to the Consolidated Goldfields of New Zealand and the Progress Mines, Ltd. The price paid to the prospectors is said to have been £2,000, and that paid to Mr. Kingswell £30,000. After acquiring the property the two companies mentioned formed the Blackwater Mines, Ltd., a company of 250,000 shares of £1 each, to work it. The sinking of a haulage shaft was started not far from the site of the first discovery, and about 200 ft. on the hanging-wall side of the reef, and two levels, No. 1 at 150 ft. from surface, and No. 2 (Joker level) at 305 ft., were rapidly pushed out, showing that a long run of stone existed. The erection of a thirty-stamp battery, equipped with tube mills, concentrating and cyaniding plants, was also quickly proceeded with, and crushing was begun in July, 1908, from which time up till the present it has been continued with a great measure of success.
The sinking of the shaft was steadily gone on with, and eight further levels were opened—No. 3 at 430 ft., No. 4 at 615 ft., No. 5 at 765 ft., No. 6 at 915 ft., No. 7 at 1,064 ft., No. 8 at 1,214 ft., No. 9 at 1,364 ft., and No. 10 at 1,514 ft., respectively from the shaft-collar. The shaft has also been sunk another lift, and a chamber cut for No. 11 level at 1,664 ft.
The workings have served to show that in common with the others occurring in the district, the reef consists of a series of lenses, but the blanks between them are short, and in places one lens practically joins up with another. The reef has a westerly dip of about 80° and strikes about N. 30° E. It consists of four main lenses, which pitch to the north at an angle of about 38°. The stone varies in width up to 8 ft., but the average width is only about 2ft. The most southerly lens is about 400 ft. in length, the next in northerly succession 800 ft., the next 1,400 ft., and the most northerly about 300 ft.
