THE RICHEST GOLD MINE IN THE WORLD.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1287, 20 June 1883, Page 2

THE RICHEST GOLD MINE IN THE WORLD.

The property in the Transvaal, from which it was reported some time ago, on good authority, that enormous quantities of gold — reaching in certain cases as much as 1000 ounces to the ton — were likely to be taken, has been acquired by an English company, whose engineer and geologist, sent out to examine the prospects, of the undertaking have sent home some satisfactory reports on the subject. " Two diggers," says one of them, "employing seven Kaffirs, had just cleared up for the week seventy-three ounces of gold, and their means of working most inefficient. It is by far the richest place I have ever seen, and the amount it will produce is something fabulous." One large reef has been discovered, running through the property and traced at the surface for over two miles. A series of trenches cut through it at the surface, prove the width to be from two to eighteen feet. The reef is composed of quartz, strongly . charged with iron, some of which having been washed, hasyielded

Wffin^pV«*ed«S st -goldl'lltfficim as estimated, to produce from 2 to 9 ounces to the ton. The engineer is of opinion that this reef when developed to a depth of fifty feet to 100 feet, will prove of more value than the whole of the smaller veins at present being worked. Some quartz reefs which have been already partially worked, give, according to the diggers, 200 ounces to the ton. This proportion, indeed, is what they admit having got from the quartz which they pick out in their sluiciug. Besides the quartz, there is a large quantity of alluvial [ "soil, some of which is reported to contain the extraordinary quantity of an ounce and a half to the cubic yard. If these prospects are realised in practical working, the Lyndenburgh goldfields may claim to take rank among the richest in the world, even if the exceptional return of looo ounces to the ton should, in full working, be reduced in practice to the 200 ounces which pioneer diggers have realised, or even to one-tenth of that proportion. Some of the alluvial washing on the " Lisbon " property have been proved to yield the uuprecedented quantity of 1900 ounces of gold to the ton. According to the certificate of Messrs Johnson, Matthey and Co., the wellknown assayers, the average yield of thirty-eight samples, taken under the supervision of the late Gold Commissioner of the Transvaal under the British Government |ip £§£. ounce? of gold and 3-8 ounces of silver to the ton of ore. The refuse, till recently thrown away by the miners on the spot, contains sufficient gold on the working of the stuff. — Colonies and India.