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Mr. Morgan seemed to think, when reporting, that Peter’s lode ought to be further prospected by extending the level at 90 ft. down the winze, or continuing the winze to 200 ft. in depth. The writer has not been able to find out whether or not the level referred to was driven any further, but the winze was sunk to the depth mentioned, with results that left no doubt the mine had no prospect of meeting with success.
It is to be regretted that the costly treatment plant was put up, the appearance of the mine at the time by no means warranting its erection; but the provision of it can only, as Mr. Morgan remarks, be looked upon as one more example of the foolishness of imagining that the building of a battery converts a prospect into a dividend-paying mine.
Following the treatment of the 600 tons of ore previously mentioned the company in 1912 approached the Mines Department for a loan of considerable size, to be devoted to sinking to a much greater depth than had been reached; but owing to the poor promise of success in such a venture the application was refused, and the company forthwith ceased operations. No work has since been done on the property.
INANGAHUA COUNTY.
Of all the various divisions of Nelson Province, Inangahua County has been by far the most prolific producer of gold from quartz-mining, the mines of that county having, to the end of 1926, as near as can now be estimated, crushed 3,076,246 tons of quartz, for a yield of 1,619,173 oz. 16 dwt. 5 gr. gold, valued at £6,257,268 15s. 1d., and paid in dividends £1,612,109 8s. 9d.
The genesis and character of the reefs have been fully and ably described by Dr. Henderson (Geol. Bull. No. 18, New Series), to which publication the reader desirous of further information regarding these points is referred. It will suffice to say here that the reefs occur in a strip of greywackes and argillites lying along the edge of the Grey—Inangahua rift-valley. In practically all cases they conform closely to the bedding of the country rock, but there are a few instances where they appear to cross the strata at small angles. In a general way it may be said that they occur along two lines, striking about 20° east of north, and extending for upwards of twenty miles through Waitahu and Reefton Survey Districts. In only a few cases are the reefs continuous for any great distance in the horizontal direction, but occur rather as lenses of limited length at intervals along the main lines of fissure. Some of the lenses have, however, been traced down to considerable depths, as in the Wealth of Nations Mine, where they have been worked down to No. 13 level, 2,270 ft. below the outcrop. If anything approaching what may be termed normal conditions had prevailed—that is, had the veins remained undisturbed to any great extent after their formation—the Inangahua field would have been a most important gold-producer and had a long life before it; but, unfortunately, the whole area covered by it has been subjected to intense faulting, with the result that the ore-shoots have been broken up in a way that has been disastrous to mining effort. Amongst the scores of mines that were opened up, it is safe to say there has scarcely been one that, sooner or later, has not entered into a zone of serious earth-movement. In some cases, after the shoots had been dislocated by these movements, their downward continuations have been picked up again, as in the Wealth of Nations and Big River Mines—in the former it was only after about
