Canterbury Well Endowed With Resources Of Useful Minerals

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27425, 11 August 1954, Page 10

Canterbury Well Endowed With Resources Of Useful Minerals

“It is perhaps still the duty of the geologist to discourage Canterbury people from bemoaning that their province has so little in the way of mineral wealth, and to point out that although the province may have no gold, copper, zinc, tin, or iron it is on the other hand well endowed with some of the more bulky nonmetallic minerals and rocks that are at jeast as useful to modern civilisation,” says the district geologist (Mr B. W. Collins), in a statement supplementing information given in an article in “The Press” last week about early efforts to mine, gold in Canterbury. “Small quantities of gold were obtained from patches of alluvium in the Upper Waihao Valley, South Canterbury,” says 'Mr Collins, “but careful search has failed to locate any gold-bearing reef in the area. A vein of quartz was found near Myer’s Pass on the range between the two main branches of the Waihao river, but proved to be barren. “Similarly, gold occurs in the banks of the Kakaha river, a few miles from Geraldine, and several attempts have been made to find the reef from which it was presumed to have been derived, but without success. Quartz grit from the coal measures in the vicinity yielded loz 15dwt a ton, and it is thought that the gold in the alluvium has been concentrated from this source rather than from an auriferous reef nearby. “In the 1860’s Canterbury, like many other parts of New Zealand, was in the grip of a gold fever, and reports of gold discoveries came in from many parts of the province,” Mr Collins says. “In 1879, Sir Julius von Haast wrote: ‘The gold said to have been obtained during the gold fever in 1865-70 in the Malvern Hills, near Oxford, or even on the very Canterbury Plains, and in several other localities proved to be either iron pyrites, or—to put a charitable construction upon it—had been lost by some accident.’ “Of course Haast, who was Provincial Geologist at the time, had to point out the unlikely nature of these rumours and the very small chance of payable gold being found east of the Alps, and he goes on to say: Tn those days, the Provincial Geologist was the most unpopular man in Canterbury because, instead of pandering

to public opinion, he tried to save the pockets of the people, and the useless expenditure of valuable energy, worthy of a better cause.’

“The same applies today, and it is perhaps still the duty of the geologist to discourage Canterbury people from bemoaning that their province has so little in the way of mineral wealth.” Mr Collins says. “The mineral wealth of Canterbury is far from negligible,” he says. “We have sands and clays in great abundance and variety—the raw materials for such essential products as glass, cement, and pottery and china, as well as clay and silica bricks. Limestones for agricultural use, for the manufacture of cement, and even for use as building sands, are widespread. “Concrete aggregate and materials for engineering construction works are probably more easily obtained in Canterbury than in any other part of New Zealand. We even have deposits of such new materials as perlite and pozzolan, which are becoming so important in special varieties of concrete. The list could be indefinitely extended, but finally I must mention Canterbury’s unrivalled sources of underground water—a mineral resource we must not forget in any inventory of the assets of our province. “If ‘all is not gold that glitters,’ it is just as true that gold is not the only valuable mineral. We in Canterbury should make every effort to develop the minerals we nave in abundance, and not indulge in nostalgic regrets concerning the old goldmining fiascos of our province*” Mr Collins concludes.