32 
THE BERRINGA GOLD-FIELD. 
(no. 17 on locality map.) 
By E. J. Dunn , F.G.S., Director , Geological Survey. 
At Berringa, the country-rock consists of greenish-grey and brownish 
sandstones, with less abundant beds of slate, olive-grey or grey in colour. 
In some of the mines, the Birthday Tunnel for instance, the slates are of 
the dark-grey colour so common at Bendigo in unaltered rock. 
The mines at work are in a narrow belt of country that probably extends 
right through from the South Birthday Mine to the Staffordshire Reef. 
On this belt the following mines are at work, and contiguous to each other. 
Beginning at the south end are the South Birthday, Birthday, Williams’ 
Fancy, Kangaroo, and the Birthday Tunnel, which is the most northern 
of the group now at work. The Staffordshire Reef is about 2 miles fur¬ 
ther north, but is not being worked. 
The South Birthday Mine. 
In the South Birthday mine 1 the shaft is 930 feet deep. The country* 
rocks dip to the west, and appear to have a fold in the cross-cut. At 
the shaft a fault or “ slide” cuts through the beds, and intersects the 
quartz reef west of the shaft, between the Nos. 6 and 7 levels. West 
from the shaft, 222 feet, at the 930-feet level, the reef occurs, 12 feet 
thick, dipping to the west. Where displaced by the eastern slide the reef 
is thrown to the east for 60 feet along the slide. 
At the 600-feet level the eastern slide or fault is 200 feet west of the 
shaft. The pitch of the country-rocks and the quartz reef is to the south. 
The Williams Fancy Mine. 
At the No. 1 level, 250 feet from surface, in the eastern cross-cut, all 
the beds dip to* the east. A “ flat slide,” or nearly horizontal fault, cuts 
through this level and dips easterly, passing through the shaft a few feet 
above this level. In the northern level, about 120 feet in, there is a trans¬ 
verse, nearly vertical, fault, which cuts through the reef diagonally, and 
displaces it about 20 feet. The reef is to the east of the shaft, and has 
been driven on northward for 1,000 feet. The quartz ranges from a few 
inches to 12 or 14 feet in thickness. Southward the reef is driven on 
for 400 feet. The pitch of the eountrv-rocks ini the northern end of the 
northern level is northerly, but along most of the level there is no pitch. 
The quartz is auriferous right along this level, and also in the southern 
level. 
At the No. 2 level, in the eastern cross-cut, the country-rocks all dip 
to the east to the end of the cross-cut. The reef dips to the west. In 
the western cross-cut, which is 500 feet long, centre-couptrv occurs, and 
the country rocks on the western side dip to the west to the end of the cross¬ 
cut. Near the end a slide dips northerly. 
At the No. 3 level, in the eastern cross-cut, all the beds dip to the east. 
A level has been driven on the reef northerly for 500 feet. A succession of 
transverse, nearly vertical, faults cuts through the reef in a diagonal 
manner, moving the reef to the eastward as in No. 1 level, but the displace¬ 
ment is greater in this level than at No. 1. 
In the No. 4 level a cross-cut has been driven 200 feet to the New 
Lode, and quartz, 14 feet wide, dipping to the west or parallel to the reef 
on which so much work has been done, has been found. This lode is 
said to yield 3! dwts. of gold per ton. 
