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An application was made for Government assistance for the extension of the adit; but, as the Inspector of Mines reported that the shoot underfoot in No. 2 level was only about 40 ft. in length and was of poor grade, this application was declined, and in 1899 all operations ceased. Before stopping work, however, a further 77 tons of stone were mined from the Victory, which on treatment yielded 82 oz. 19 dwt. gold, valued at £331 16s. 4d., and 110 tons from the Julian, which yielded 129 oz. 19 dwt. gold, valued at £519 16s. As the Julian, prior to the amalgamation, had crushed 12½ tons for 15 oz. 18 dwt. 18 gr. gold, valued at £60, this gave the whole known output from the mines as 811 tons, yielding 1,388 oz. 3 dwt. 18 gr. gold, worth £6,476 3s. 3d.
Nothing further appears to have been done on the field till 1917, when the Victory Mines Syndicate was formed in Greymouth to give it another trial. This syndicate erected a new battery, and did some mining on the old antimony lode. A crushing of about 100 tons was taken out, but the return was poor, only a little over 20 oz. gold being recovered. As assays showed the stone to be fairly rich, there can be no doubt that the greater part of the gold was lost through the antimony preventing effective amalgamation. Following on this disappointing return, the syndicate abandoned further work on that part of the property and directed its attention to the Victory section, where a new adit was run in about 105 ft. under the old No. 2 adit. This new adit was extended for about 455 ft., but the only stone met with consisted of a small barren reef intersected near the end of the drive. Owing to there being some uncertainty as to the position, by reason of doubt as to the accuracy of such old plans as were available, the syndicate drilled upward from the new level in an effort to discover where the shoot of stone going underfoot in No. 2 level had got to, and at a point estimated to be 25 ft. under the old level the bore is said to have passed through 3 ft. of quartz, an assay of which showed it to contain gold to the extent of 19 dwt. 17 gr. per ton. All effort failed, however, to pick up the downward continuation of this stone on the new level, and work on the property was once more discontinued.
On the Julian Claim several adits were also put in, of which no plans or adequate description are now available, but it is known that nothing of value was found in them.
Beyond the fact that in this report of 1883 Alexander McKay mentions that reefs were found in the Albion Claim, south of Langdon’s Extended, and in Wilson’s lease to the north of it, nothing is known regarding the results of prospecting on the many other claims taken up in the locality. A sample from a 2 ft. reef in the last-mentioned claim is said to have yielded by assay at the rate of 3 dwt. 6 gr. gold per ton.
There can be no doubt that the area within which the Langdon’s reefs occur, lying as it does along the powerful Roa fault, has been subjected to considerable disturbance, and in view of this it is questionable if any further prospecting there is justifiable. There is a possibility that careful prospecting by trenching along the lines of the Antimony lode and the Victory lode might reveal valuable surface shoots, but anything found would almost inevitably be badly broken up by earth-movements.
Blackball Creek Reefs.—For a number of years prior to 1889 it was known that quartz reefs occurred in the gorge of Blackball Creek, but it was not till that year that any of them were found to be auriferous, when a little of the precious metal was discovered in a large formation outcropping on the western bank of the creek about half a mile above its confluence with
