New Company to Operate

Misima Gold

History Of Field

MISIMA Options Ltd., a new gold company to operate at Misima Island, in Eastern Papua, was registered in Sydney this month.

The company has a capital of £10,000, divided into 200,000 shares of 1/- each.

Misima Options has secured a work ing option over leases on Misima, which were worked, until recently, by the Mt. Sisa Goldfields Papua N.L., together with two other leases near Inhabit Creek. The company intends to increase the present plant and carry out a plan of development on the big lodes, which, to date, are stated to be proved to the extent of approximately 80,000 tons.

It is the intention of the company to send Mr. B. Saker mining engineer, to superintend mining operations.

The directors of Misima Options Ltd. are: Brig.-Gen. H. W. Lloyd, Hon.

C. W. C. Marr, Messrs. Sidney Mordin, Fred. C. Emanuel, H. D. Vautin and R. Bannon.

The secretary is Mr. Arthur H. Hill.

It is to be hoped that the formation of this company portends the com mencement of really worth-while developmental activities in Misima.

The gold is there—there is little doubt about that—but the work of obtaining the gold has been handicapped by mistakes, which have ranged from muddling to knavery; and investors may naturally be a little shy of any further Misima enterprise.

Misima (otherwise St. Aignan) is a forest-clad, mountainous island, and is one of the chief islands of the Louisiade Archipelago, east of Papua.

It is 24 miles long and ranging up to nine miles in width; and its highest peak, Mt. Oiatau, is 3,400 feet high.

Mt. Sisa is 1,207 feet. The most im portant gold has been found near Mt.

Sisa and Umuna, about four miles from the port of Bwagaoia, and seven miles of tramway connect the mining leases with Bwagaoia. The climate is healthy, and quite suitable for white settlement, and the temperature has little variation. There are some 2,500 natives on the island, scattered among 30 coastal villages, and many of them work the alluvial gold. This makes them independent, and indentured labour, from other districts, is essen tial to gold-mining.

The gold-bearing country was be ing worked on a considerable scale as long ago as 1915, by Misima Gold Mining Co. (formerly known as New Guinea Options, N.L.) and Block 10 Company, B.H.