Messrs. Chalmers 8f Hatch — Mashonaland ^ Mataheleland. 201 



quartz, but there are also seams of dark grey and brown quartz. 

 The coloured quartz owes its colour to the presence of iron minerals 

 and indicates a greater amount of mineralization than the white 

 portions. The gold occurs mainly in patches, chambers, pockets, 

 and crevices in the reef, and many good specimens of " visible " 

 metal can easily be obtained by a little search. 



The Dunraven property in the Seleukwe district contains a 

 number of quartz lodes, some of which are roughly parallel, 

 others intersecting to form a network of veins. The workings 

 are approached by an adit run in from the side of the hill ; above, 

 on the hill side, are some extensive old workings. Several reefs 

 of considerable dimensions have been discovered in the adit, and 

 these are now being driven on. The gold is free and is associated 

 with the usual iron and copper minerals. 



The Inez Reef in the Mombi district is one of the best known in 

 the country. It is traceable at or near the surface for a distance of 

 a mile or two, striking N.W. and S.E., and dipping S.W. The best 

 part of the reef is a shoot, extending 100 feet along the strike, and 

 to the greatest depth yet attained, viz. about 90 feet. The average 

 width of reef here is 6| feet, with a grade of probably nearly 

 1| ozs. per ton (by fire assay). A crushing of 40 tons from the 

 best part of the reef yielded 68 ozs. on the plates— 34 dwts. per ton. 

 The quartz is compact with for the most part little mineral, the gold 

 being fine and apparently evenly disseminated. Near the hanging 

 wall, however, there is sometimes a vein from 2^ to 14 feet in 

 thickness, heavily charged with antimonite, and antimony ochre ; 

 the sulphide is massive and almost pure. The hanging v/all of the 

 reef is chloritic schist. The footwall is metamorphic, but of more 

 obscure character ; the rock is often granular in texture and contains 

 secondary calcite. 



The Camperdown property is in the Seleukwe district, Matahele- 

 land. The particular hill on which the property is situated is 

 composed chiefly of banded chert and ironstone, similar to Con- 

 cession and Duchess Hills. Interbanded with the country are veins 

 or seams containing sugary quartz and iron oxides, which carry 

 gold, and have been worked by the ancients through numerous pits 

 and burrows on the rabbit-warren method. It is probable that a 

 number of different seams have been worked at shallow depths, the 

 workings extending promiscuously along and down the hill side. 

 Another class of deposit on the Camperdown is the fissure vein, 

 with very high dip. In one part of the hill it would appear as if 

 both kinds of deposits had been worked together. A long vertical 

 stope can be seen with traces of quartz on the walls, which at one 

 point is enlarged into a shaft about 15 to 20 feet deep to tap one of 

 the flat-lying interbanded deposits. 



Near the Camperdown, as in fact in all the gold districts of the 

 country, are to be seen the stones used by the ancients for grinding 

 quartz. They are generally blocks of the harder varieties of rocks, 

 from 20 to 100 lbs. in weight, with shallow depressions worn into 

 the upper face. Sometimes near a rivei", mortars can be seen, 

 hollowed out of the solid rock. 



