STATE BRIQUETTE PLANTS

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24280, 10 June 1944, Page 4

STATE BRIQUETTE PLANTS

USE OF SLACK COAL (P.A.) AUCKLAND, June 9. “The blending and briquetting of coals will go a long way in improving the general standard of domestic and railway fuel, and will enable much of the lower-grade coals to be used, and so save high-grade coals,” said the Hon. P. C. Webb, Minister of Mines, in announcing that the manufacture of coal «lack into briquettes is to be undertaken by the State. The Mines Department is examining sites for the establishment of briquette plants, and is obtaining quotations from manufacturers for the necessary machinery. - The Minister said samples of New Zealand coals have been sent to the United States, for investigation of the possibility of binderless briquetting, and the Mines Department had been in touch with the principal makers of briquetting plants in England and America, particular ' attention being paid to the possibilities of the binderless briquette now being developed in America,

It was the Government’s Intention to take active steps to avoid a repetition of the great wastage of slack coal which had occurred some years ago. The waste of slack in the Waikato district had amounted to 100,000 tons annually before the introduction of uniform screening, but the position since had been much improved both in the North and South Islands.