Appendix 11.
Reefs of Macrae’s Flat.

To this locality I was kindly conducted by Mr. Warden Robinson, of Naseby. At the head of Macrae’s Flat there have been at one time several so-called reefs prospected and proved auriferous (Golden Bar Reef, Moonlight Reef, etc.), but according to description, they seemed to have only formed bunches, or "blows," between the beds of the country, running out in strike and dip. The only reef on which some extensive workings have been carried on is the Duke of Edinburgh Reef, and about the history of this and the old company who once worked it, I received ready information from Mr. A. Simpson, a former employé of the company. The reef, where exposed, in a small cutting from a gully near the old main workings, is 3ft. thick, strikes W. 20° N., and dips northward at an angle of 35° to 40°, lying between the beds of a rather soft blue phyllite that forms the country rock. The foot-wall, or underlying rock-bed, is well-defined and smooth, but the hanging one is broken and traversed by small quartz leaders, dipping towards the reef, which latter is composed of about 15 or 18 inches of quartz on the foot wall, and nearly 2ft. of mullock, traversed by quartz strings, on the hanging wall. The quartz is good looking and abundantly impregnated with pyrites. As regards the old workings, which consist of open cuttings and shafts, now more or less collapsed, they extend, with a few interruptions, for 12 to 15 chains in length; but the greatest depth reached at any point was, according to Mr. Simpson, only 40ft. The quartz, which was principally selected for crushing, ran from 10 to 18 inches in thickness, and paid from 7 dwts. up to 2 oz. of gold per ton. It was nowhere lost in depth. The reef, as such, is traceable for more than a mile in strike, and crosses two small gullies, which, from the crossing line downward, have proved very rich in gold, a clear proof that the denuded portion of the reef must have been richly auriferous also, page 233and indicating the chance of the latter being there payable in depth. The company’s crushing mill was a very good one, but, judging from the coarseness and pyritous nature of the tailings, and that, according to Mr. Simpson, a large quantity of quicksilver was lost, a great deal of the gold, which was very fine, must have been lost also. On account of the scarcity of water in the locality, the company had a fine reservoir constructed in the gully below the reef, from which an adit led the water to a shaft, 50ft. deep, sunk close to the machine, and furnished with pumps for supplying the batteries. Considering the nature, extent, and auriferous character of this reef, and the, no doubt, considerable loss of gold during former crushing, there is, I think, some chance that, if economically worked, and with improved gold saving appliances, it might leave a profit, notwithstanding a great expense connected with the procuring of fuel (Brown coal from Shag Pont) for a steam engine.