90 
The new Gift shaft is 235 feet deep, the plat is 220 feet from the 
surface. The lode is 4 feet thick and 7 feet to the west of the shaft at 
the plat. 
Mt. Corryjong Copper Company. 
This company is working the Currajong lode at a place about 2J miles 
north from the Upper Township, Bethanga. The strike of the lode is 
X. 25 deg. E., dip 78 deg. E. On the top of a spur a shaft is sunk 
98 feet deep. At 78 feet from the surface a rich Block of copper ore was 
obtained. It was about 17 feet long, 10 feet high, and about 2 feet wide 
on an average. Mr. Grant, the manager, informs me that from this block, 
copper ore to the value of ,£530 was obtained. It consisted of black oxide 
and some sulphide, &c., and contained gold ten the extent of 2 dwt. 12 gr. 
per ton. The copper ore assayed 27 per cent, copper. At 26 feet south of 
the shaft another slice of ore appears to be showing, as good ore 3 inches 
thick exists. The shoots pitch south at about 78 deg. At the surface 
this lode was worked twenty years ago for the gold contained in the gossan. 
At a lower level 145 feet below the sill of the shaft, a level had been driven 
in 400 feet; at 430 feet it will be directly under the shaft; the lode has 
been followed the whole distance. 
At 285 feet below this level another tunnel is being driven along the 
lode; it is only started; this will command 430 feet of “ backs.'' 1 These 
lodes should maintain a large mining population and if the New Bethanga 
Company succeeds there will be extensive developments at Bethanga and 
in its neighbourhood. In case of an expansion in mining a grave difficultv 
will be the scarcity of timber and fuel. 
At one time the whole country around was covered with valuable timber, 
but these forests have been so devastated that only remnants now survive. 
Very stringent steps should be taken to prevent the destruction of the 
timber on grazing areas and on other Crown lands where it can be saved, 
as the dearth of fuel and mining timber will probably prove a serious 
handicap to mining expansion in this district. 
[Report sent in 25.5.(97.] 
TIN ORE AT KOETOXG AXD CUDGEWA. 
By E. J. Dunn, F.G.S., Director , Geological Survey. 
Koetong is about 1,800 feet above sea-level and the country rock around 
is granitic. The Koetong Creek which crosses the main road here has been 
worked for alluvial tin ore at a former period for many miles in a northerly 
direction or down stream. 
The Excelsior Tin Mining Company. 
The lease worked by this company is situated on the upper portion of 
Koetong Creek, here called Running Creek, about 2 miles southward from 
Koetong at an elevation of about 2,100 feet above sea-level. The bedrock 
or country rock is granite. On the west side of the creek there is a Tertiary 
(Newer Pliocene) deposit that stretches for 3 or 4 chains back from the 
creek, with a semi-rounded gravel of quartz derived from the immediate 
