GOLD.
The attention of the majority of the population has mainly been directed to the exploitation of the gold reefs, and in spite of difficulties arising from want of transport and from ignorance of the country, a great deal of solid development has been achieved.
Owing to various causes, it was not until July 1891 that regular workings were commenced. Since that time prospecting has been carried on in a systematic and efficient manner, resulting in the discovery of the gold-bearing districts of Victoria, Manica, Hartley Hill, Mazoe, and Lo Magondas, having a total area of 27,000 square miles. It is believed that the gold-belt starting from Umtali passes through Victoria, and will in all probability connect with the gold-belt stretching eastward from the Tati gold-fields in the western portion of Matabeleland, and on which considerable development work has been done.
Fresh discoveries on a large scale have recently been made within 15 miles of Salisbury. The latest cable intelligence states that in these new fields the reefs proved to 40 and 60 feet are as rich and as wide as at the surface. Gold-belts have also recently been discovered at Mt. Darwin, about 80 miles north of Mazoe, at points 120 miles north of Umtali (Manica) and 80 miles south of the same place, [[411]]and on the Tokwe River about 30 miles west of Victoria. The gold formations at the above places are all very extensive, show visible freely, and give very rich pannings, while they cannot be said to have been developed at all up to the present. Another series of reefs, which are described as being phenomenally rich by the British South Africa Company’s Administrator, have just been discovered in the commonage at Umtali.
The immense cost of importing even the lightest stamp batteries has, of course, retarded the gold industry to an enormous extent, but the completion of the Beira Railway will work a great change in this respect. What crushings have taken place show very rich results. The average yield from several hundred tons of ore extracted from all reefs in the Victoria district, good and bad together, was 18·3 dwt. per ton, or about 73s. It has, however, been proved in practice that mining operations even under present conditions can be carried on in Mashonaland at a cost not exceeding 20s. per ton, leaving the very handsome profit of 53s. for every ton crushed in the above district.
In a cablegram recently received from the Company’s administrator on his return from a tour of inspection of the various mining districts he states that new finds were occurring everywhere daily, and that crushings were everywhere successful; that the reefs were improving with depth, and that wonderful development was proceeding in every district. As regards alluvial gold, that large deposits do exist, and that their discovery is only a question of time, is the opinion of all experienced miners. That this time has now arrived seems probable from a cable message recently received reporting that 50 oz. of alluvial gold had been brought into Salisbury, causing great excitement there. Should, however, alluvial fields, so valuable to a new country from their power of attracting a large mining population, [[412]]never be discovered, it may not be too much to say—the progress that has been made in so short a time, and the enormous extent and richness of the auriferous reefs being taken into consideration—that the time cannot be far distant when Mashonaland will assume a leading position amongst the principal gold-producing countries of the world. [[413]]