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about 1910, when the Consolidated Goldfields, Ltd., cleaned up the old adit and extended it about 200 ft. in a southerly direction, proving a run of stone about 3 ft. wide which carried much better values than that in the north end. No. 2 adit, 150 ft. below No. 1, was then started, but had not been carried in to the reef when work was stopped by the outbreak of the World War in 1914, so many men enlisting from the district that only enough were left to man the more important mines. Since then the claim has come into the hands of Robert Bros., who put the adits in repair, but for want of sufficient capital they have not been able to carry out any fresh development work on it.
Band of Hope Mine.—This mine may be said to be the most southerly of those directly on Kelly’s line. It was opened up very soon after the first discovery in the locality, for a crushing from it in October, 1872, is amongst the very earliest recorded in the district. The mine has, however, never done any good. The original company ceased to exist in 1877, when the claim became the property of the Golden Treasure Company. Two adits were driven on the claim, 190 ft. apart vertically, the upper being 170 ft. below the collar of the Golden Fleece shaft and 60 ft. below the outcrop of the reef. A winze connected these two levels, from which several intermediates were opened out. About 700 ft. in from the mouth of No. 2 adit another winze was sunk for about 150 ft., and two levels were driven from it, one at 70 ft. below the adit and the other at the bottom. Only very incomplete plans of these workings are available, but the records show that a shoot of ore existed in the mine, about 200 ft. in length with an average width of about 6 ft., and that it was followed down from surface for a distance of approximately 400 ft. Some patches of fair-grade ore appear to have occurred in it, but the quartz on the whole was poor. Small parcels of stone were mined and treated by the original company, but of these no record exists showing quantity or value. It is known, however, that in 1910 a party of tributers took out a crushing of 390 tons which only yielded 25 oz. gold, a return which was far from payable.
Golden Treasure Mine.—The original Golden Treasure Company was formed in 1875 to work an area adjoining the Band of Hope. Until 1886 this company worked steadily, and managed to pay £3,400 in dividends, but the output was comparatively small, the total amount of quartz mined and crushed during the period being 7,671 tons, which yielded 4,820 oz. gold, valued at £18,703 18s. 6d. The principal reason accounting for the small tonnage extracted was the fact that the lode contained a considerable quantity of antimony, and it was found impossible to separate the gold from it, consequently only the cleanest quartz could be taken. In 1886 the original company ceased operations and the ground lay idle till 1889, when it was purchased by a syndicate of which Mr. J. B. Beeche was manager, and a new company known as the Golden Treasure Extended was formed, which for a time carried on very active prospecting both in the old Golden Treasure and in the Band of Hope, in the latter of which the winze from No. 2 adit was sunk.
Apart from the Band of Hope shoot, there were three others found in the claim. The most northerly of these was what was known as the Westland Block, which was worked in a small way in 1875–76, but did not prove payable. It is stated to have been 4 ft. in width, but nothing is known as to its length. South of this was the Golden Treasure North block, 100 ft. in length and from 2 ft. to 5 ft. in width, from which the original company had crushings which yielded 2 oz. gold per ton. Somewhat south again of
