At Aji Bipa the lode runs N. 38º E. (Mag.) in the centre shaft, and N. 40 E. in the southern shaft, a sort of fault occurring in the centre shaft. In the northern shaft I should put it at 38º, but from the way in which the neighbouring rock had cleaved it was difficult to get the strike accurately. The dip is the same in all three shafts, viz. 82º. The lode being so near vertical, it can be clearly traced for the whole depth of the shafts, and is very well defined. The hanging (eastern) wall is highly coloured with iron oxides, and contains many quartz crystals which are through-coloured with the same, and I do not think it at all unlikely that garnets and other gems may be found in it. One or two minute crystals showed a green colour, and might be tourmaline or emerald; but perhaps it was only a surface-colour caused by the presence of copper. The foot wall is very well marked by a strip of whitish yellow clay about an inch in thickness. The rock on both sides of the lode is gold-bearing, and is evidently, as well as the real lode, formed of the debris of old quartz and granites. Talcose flakes are frequent, and in some places it seems to be clearly gneiss. Although with a small plant it might not be profitable to treat this, still with large and suitable machinery it may be made to pay, and the trouble of separating the rich lode from the inferior stone avoided. One remarkable trait in the lode is the manner in which it splits into blocks and slabs, all the faces of the quartz pebbles being cloven in precisely the same plane.
The length of the concession along the line of lode is 2,780 feet, and from the way in which the lode stands on the western slope of the hill, and the dip being eastward, I am of opinion that if a drift were put through the hill other and parallel lodes would be found. Of course this can only be proved by experience.
The thickness of the lode where I measured it varied from 22-1/2 to 25 inches in the southern shaft; and although I saw one pinch in the northern, and the fault in the centre one, it can easily be traced and worked, and should prove most profitable. In the centre shaft it is 24 inches, and in the northern 30 inches.
A curious sort of black substance occurs close to the line of clay which defines the under side of the lode, and may be remnants of some vegetable material; but with the means at my disposal I will not give any decided opinion.
Over the rock which forms the main body of the hill lie the usual red clay and oxidised quartz gravels, which, if treated by hydraulic mining, ought, as it contains gold, to prove a paying stuff: moreover washing off the surface-dirt would lay bare the rock and render all after-work easy and simple.
The alluvials in the bottoms should here prove unusually rich, and means might be adopted by which they should be raised mechanically and then flumed down again.
Ample water supply exists both for hydraulic mining and reef-working; there are good sites for all necessary machinery and building, and timber as usual is to be had in any quantity that may be required.
The question of transport is of course a most important one, and in the
present state of the roads and country very expensive; but from the
route-survey I have made I am convinced that a cheap and efficient service
to the mines of this and neighbouring districts would be easily organised,
and that instead of paying, as at present, the absurd price of 4s. or
5s. per ton per mile, it could be reduced to an average of from 4d. to
6d. The shafts now open are—
South, 45 feet deep, 9 feet by 4 feet 9 inches.
Centre, 36 feet deep, 8 feet 6 inches by 4 feet 2 inches.
North, 45 feet deep, 8 feet by 5 feet 10 inches.
This is both a most valuable and interesting piece of country to work, and I hope that it may soon be provided with all necessary staff, plant and machinery.
Rich returns may be confidently expected, and under proper management should prove a most paying business.