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781 oz. gold were recovered, an average of 7·1 dwt. per ton. Despite the unsatisfactory yield, the party in 1897 continued the sinking of the shaft, and opened out No. 4 level at 330 ft. below the collar. On this level only one of the three blocks found on No. 3 level was picked up, and this was stoped out up to No. 3; but the gold values continued below pay-line, and towards the end of 1899 the claim, together with the Gallant and Scotia Claims, passed into the ownership of a Reefton syndicate, which started to operate them under the title of the New Scotia Gold-mining Company. The new company carried on till 1905, during which time it did very well, mainly from the treatment by the cyanide process of the accumulated tailings. The company did a lot of development work, continuing No. 3 level and connecting it by means of winzes and rises with the Gallant adit, but no reef of any value was found, and the boiler and winding-engine were removed for use in sinking a prospecting-shaft, known as “Martin’s Winze,” on the Scotia Claim.
As near as can be estimated, the Sir Francis Drake Mine during its period of production crushed 16,987 tons of quartz for a yield of 5,810 oz. 16 dwt. 6 gr. gold (including the results from cyanide treatment), valued at £20,632 5s. 2d., equal to £1 4s. per ton.
In 1912 the claim passed into the hands of the Consolidated Goldfields, Ltd., which re-equipped the shaft with winding plant and began to sink it to greater depth. As far as the writer can learn, the objective on this occasion was not so much to test the Sir Francis Drake lode at deeper levels, but to put out a drive at 600 ft. below the shaft-collar to test the country between that mine and the Cumberland Mine, about 2,400 ft. to the southward. Whatever the intention was, however, it was not proceeded far with. With the coming of the World War in 1914, which resulted quickly in a great falling-off in the supply of suitable labour, an abrupt stoppage was put to the sinking when the shaft had reached a depth of 553 ft., and not long afterwards the property was forfeited on suit in the Warden’s Court and passed into the hands of Joseph Gardner. Practically nothing more was done with it till about 1923, when the Scotia Prospecting and Development Syndicate was formed to give it another trial. This syndicate opened out a new level (No. 5) from the shaft, and picked up a short shoot of stone—or, rather, a formation consisting of numerous small leaders of quartz banded with country rock—but it contained little more than traces of gold, and after spending about £4,000 the syndicate abandoned operations, and the mine has since been idle.
Gallant Mine.—This claim, adjoining the Sir Francis Drake on the north, was taken up in 1888, and a company was at once formed to work it. A reef about 3 ft. in width, and said to show very fair gold prospects, was traced on the surface for nearly 1,000 ft., or practically right through the claim. A shaft was sunk on the outcrop for a depth of 150 ft., about 5 chains from the northern boundary, and an adit level was driven to meet it. This adit met the reef at 250 ft. in, and 175 ft. north of the shaft. Where first intersected in the adit the stone was 18 in. wide, but at the foot of the shaft it was 3 ft. 6in. This adit was later extended to over 800 ft., on lode said to average about 4 ft. in width, but the values throughout were evidently low. Crushing was started towards the end of 1889, but with the exception of a short period on 1891, when a small pocket of fairly good stone was mined, the returns were not payable. In 1893 a party of tributers tried the reef, but did not carry on long, the yield from the crushing taken out being unsatisfactory, and early in 1894 the claim was abandoned. Nothing further was done on
