9i 
- - • . . 
i 
locality. 1 he depth of the overlying red soil, the mottled clays, and the 
wash all combined is about 8 to 12 feet, and the run of payable wash 
appears to be about 1 chain wide where the dredging plant is at work. 
A section is as under :— 
su/?fytc£ 
- - 'tt/s. 
\'J<<\r 3 >A /.v / •>.vAAXA' -/ \>>A 7 vTyci 
Fig. 14. 
Sketch Section at the Excelsior Tin Mine, Koetonv. 
J ' o 
Granite. 
The quartz pebbles are of granite veinstones and they are frequently 
studded with fine needles of black tourmaline. Specks of cassiterite the 
size of currants and up to that of raisins are not uncommon in them. The 
cassiterite is of the peculiar brown colour that characterizes the ore in this 
district. It is not so thoroughly rounded as it is further down the creek. 
'The paddock so far excavated is about f acre in area, and from it over 
8 tons of tin ore is said to have been won. This should be very profitable 
to work, but some difficulty has been experienced through employing 
unsuitable plant. A Jenning’s pump was at first used but is now dis¬ 
mantled and a dredge is being worked. 
There is a great deal of titaniferous iron ore with the cassiterite— 
8 tons titaniferous iron to 1 ton cleaned tin oxide, so the manager informs 
me. A sample of the concentrates examined at the Mines Laboratory 
was found to consist principally of titaniferous iron, with a little quartz 
and some garnet fragments, and about 1 per cent, of cassiterite. This 
sand also contains some monazite, rutile, and zircon. If it can be 
worked profitably there is a considerable length of the wash yet to be 
dealt with higher up the creek. Below this site the stream tin was worked 
by sluicing about 30 years since. 
About 1 mile westerly, on the road to the Annandale Syndicate’s work¬ 
ings, there is Tertiary country that would be worth boring to discover 
whether it carried alluvial tin or not. 
The Annandale Syndicate. 
The ground worked by this syndicate lies about 3 miles in a wester In¬ 
direction from the Excelsior workings, and is about 2,100 feet above sea- 
level. The nature of the deposit worked is much the same. First there 
