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tinuous prospecting, pegging off two 50-acre areas, known as Blocks 2 and 3, immediately to the south of the New Golden Ridge Mine. On Block 2, which adjoined the Golden Ridge, a reef was located, on which a winze was sunk for 150 ft. A little later an adit was run in to meet the bottom of the winze, after doing which work operations ceased for a time on that area and the investigation of Block 3 was pushed on with. Winzing and driving on this block soon revealed a fairly large body of quartz. A small trial crushing of 20 tons was taken out and treated at the Taitapu Estates battery for a yield of 65 oz. smelted gold, equal to a return of 3¼ oz. gold per ton. In 1898 the company, whose claim was first known as the Pioneer and later as the Aorangi or Golden Blocks, erected for itself a battery of three 250 lb. stamps, which in the following year was increased to eight stamps, and thereafter carried on continuous operations till 1913, when the supplies of stone became practically exhausted and work ceased. During the time it was worked the mine produced 21,326 tons of quartz, which yielded 23,856 oz. 2 dwt. 1 gr. gold, valued at £92,267 11s. 9d. As neither the Taitapu Gold Estates, Ltd., nor the Australian Gold Trust were registered in New Zealand no definite information is known as to what amount was paid in dividends, but the “Mining Handbook” of 1906 shows (p. 87) that up till 1904 the latter company had distributed £18,945.
The mines of the West Wanganui Inlet field may be said to have all been confined to a stretch of country about a mile in length by a few chains in width, all the principal workings being along the same line of lode which traversed them on a strike nearly due north and south. The lode occurred as a series of lenses in rocks consisting of interbedded argillites, greywackes, and quartzites, the argillites being highly graphitic, and appeared to be confined to a narrow band of carbonaceous, sometimes siliceous, argillite never exceeding 20 in. in width. The interbedded rocks were considerably flexed, and the gold-bearing portion had the appearance of being the eastern leg of a syncline. Along the line of the formation the lenses were comparatively short, and towards the northern end in particular they did not live any great distance in any direction. In the upper portion of the Golden Blocks Mine they showed the best development, but even there they did not live downwards continuously. On No. 3 level, which is only about 180 ft. vertically below the outcrop, the quartz found was merely in small isolated blocks. From this level a winze was sunk for 90 ft., and this is said to have bottomed in good stone, but the difficulty of coping with the inflow of water at that depth prevented any attempt to work this quartz.
Outside the principal mines a number of erratic blocks of quartz were found, some of which contained good gold values. One of these was discovered in a branch of Sandhill Creek, three-quarters of a mile to the west of the main line of reef. Another was found in Friday Creek, a branch of Sandhill Creek, from which gold to the value of £2,500 is said to have been got. On the slopes of Conical Hill, some 6 chains or so to the westward of the main line, another erratic was found from which a small quantity of quartz averaging 3 oz. gold per ton was taken.
Although there are indications, as before mentioned, that the ore-shoots in the Golden Blocks Mine live down below No. 3 level, it seems apparent that, as far as the main line of lode is concerned, its possibilities of further profitable working are negligible, but farther to the south there is still a chance that close search might reveal ore-bodies that would pay to work. J. M. Bell[1] remarks that a possible continuation of the principal reef-system
- ↑ Geol. Bull. No. 3, p. 94.
