C.—6

2

The gold is of one character in all the different reefs. Being granular and heavy, it makes no show in the stone, even in hand-specimens that will yield Boz. to lOoz. to the ton, but it will be easily saved in passing through the battery. Plan No. 3.—The leases held for mining purposes are situated from eight to ten miles above the junction of the Owen with the Buller, and are fourteen in number. They, with the several quartz crops they contain, are shown on the accompanying plans. Nine of them are occupying ground on the line of the Bulmer Reef. Plan No. 2.- —The Bulmer Creek is the pioneer claim of the district, and occupies a sharp steep spur facing the south; a marked feature in the area being a precipitous bluff in the slate rock extending east and west across the ground, which in the face of it exposes three large reefs. No. lisa blow of stone of a thickness not yet ascertained, the hanging-wall not being exposed. It would be safe to say it is, 20ft., but it is probably much more. This is accompanied by a, gold-bearing leader to the westward of it, which has been traced a long distance up the spur. No. 2 is a well-formed reef of 3ft. in thickness, also having a rich leader on the hangingwall; and No. 3is a reef of sft. in thickness, but shows no gold. These reefs have scarcely been touched, as the workings, which are considerable, have been drives entered with the object of cross-cutting them at a lower level (Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4). No. 1, 240 ft., shows no reef; No. 2, 90ft., has cut the No. 2 lode, but has not been driven upon it, although the quartz is •sft. thick; No. 3 shows no reefs; and No. 4 has cut a lode which, for position and underlie, nearly corresponds with the No. 2 lode. This drive will be useful as a main low level when the reefs are developed; but, instead of following the reef which has been cut at that level, it would be better to open on those which are known to contain gold, and to prove them, when the work could be carried on at the greater depth with more certainty. The trials made of the quartz in this claim yielded, from the eastern leader, No. 2 reef, loz. lodwt.; from the western leader, No. 1 reef, 12dwt. 4gr.; and from the reef in the No. 2 cross-cut, sdwt. 14gr. per ton. These, which were taken as generally as possible over all the faces exposed, were intended to avoid picked stone, and this applies to all the other tests herein mentioned. At the south end of this area, and extending three or four chains into the Wakatu and half-way across the Uno ground, in a line parallel with the bluff, is a belt of huge quartz blocks, scattered and disconnected, but highly auriferous. Some of the largest carry with them the whole of the lode-formation, and would, except for the changed position, be easily mistaken for reefs in the solid. About 40 tons of quartz have been taken from one of these blocks by the Bulmer Creek Company, and perhaps 80 or 90 tons from another by the Wakatu, the latter yielding 19dwt. 13gr. to the ton, and the former about the same; botli containing a great deal of quartz of a richer character, which would yield 3oz. to 4oz. The Wakatu drive passed 40ft. along one of these blocks, and was afterwards extended to a cross-course, which it cuts at 132 ft. This cross-course is at right angles to the reefs, and dips towards the south-east, and has all the indications of having been a very considerable slide., by which the whole of the reef-formation was brought down from the bluff into the Uno Valley, and scattered in the pell-mell position the blocks now occupy. The quantity of quartz in these blocks is very considerable, for a great number of them are exposed to the surface, and what are buried beneath cannot be estimated. A test from them gave 19dwt. lOgr. per ton. The Uno has two strong lodes—one, sft. thick; the other, 2fd. —marked 4 and 5 on plan; which, running northward and rising eastward on their underlie, will pass through this belt of blocks, and may have thrown down the eastern portion of them. The Wakatu United is putting in a cross-cut to intersect these reefs, and (by rises) to work the blocks. The drive is in some 70ft. in good country, and is the best method that could have been adopted for prospecting the mine. This company has a strong lode or two in the spur west of Spring Creek, but the crops are not sufficiently exposed to admit of any estimate bsing made of their value. Plan No. 3. —In following the Bulmer lodes southward, the fall of the ground and the underlie of the reefs combined carry them considerably away to the westward of the line of strike. The ground at the creek is unoccupied, but the spurs on the south side of it are within the area held by the Bonanza Quartz-mining Company. Here there are several outcrops, one of which is 40ft. thick, and three others are strong lodes, but unprospected. They all contain gold, but, till they are faced off and stripped to some extent, it will be impossible to give an opinion of their value. The reefs after rising the Bonanza Spur show the same north-west strike, but the hill is covered with blocks of limestone, the fringe of a bed of the same rock under which the slate dips. On the south side of the spur the slate again appears, and the quartz crops to the surface. The Owen Quartz-mining Company occupies this ground, and has a crop of quartz containing gold. There is a good deal of scattered gold-bearing quartz about the surface, and other indications of reefs. The Zealandia has two quartz crops in a creek which has exposed them : the upper one is 14ft. thick, and I believe will prove payable; the lower one contains gold, and is probably twice that thickness; but the general test of the stone shows that it will not all pay for working. The quartz containing most of the gold is near the hanging-wall, and it also carries a considerable amount of iron pyrites. The mine can be easily prospected by a cutting through the two reefs on a level with the outcrop, and it would be inexpensive work. The analysis of the stone taken over the whole surface of the reef gave 4dwt. 4gr., but the stone near the hanging-wall gives a far better yield.