COAL SEARCH ON WEST COAST

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27733, 10 August 1955, Page 7

COAL SEARCH ON WEST COAST

BRUNNERMT. DAVY BLOCK DRILLING PROGRAMME ABANDONED (From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, August 9. Five drillings in the Brunner-Mount Davy block, up to now regarded as the largest untested area in the Greymouth coalfield, have shown that there is little likelihood of any workable areas of coal lying there. The coal seams do not persist, according to Mr R. P. Suggate, of the Geological Survey. who has published his findings in the “Journal of Science and Technology.” The area, which includes Mount Davy (3316 ft and Sewell Peak (2732 ft is very rugged, and test drilling near Mount Davy was particularly difficult and costly. This high cost of drilling, together with the generally disappointing results of two of the drillholes, led to the abandonment of the remainder of the proposed drilling programme. The block lies between Rewanui and the Grey river, and was thought to be the only large untested potential coal-bearing area in the coalfield, in the light of a detailed survey made in 1944. However, five drillholes, which ranged from 2000 ft to 2700 ft in depth, have resulted in the estimate of coal resources being reduced by 25 per cent. A large proportion of the hypothetical reserves of the Greymouth coalfield calculated in 1945 was considered to lie in this block, and the results of the drilling now completed required careful consideration in any discussion of prospects and development policy for the Greymouth coalfield, said Mr Suggate. The greater part of the decreased estimate of reserves was in high and medium volatile bituminous coal, and the total estimate had dropped from 300.000.000 tons i to 225,000.000 tons. I The drilling had proved no workable area of coal, said Mr Suggate. ; Investigation in the Mount Davy area I was difficult, one problem being ac- ■ cess, which could be made only by constructing an aerial ropeway with an average grade of one in two across a ridge over 1000 ft above the Rewanui ! railway terminus. The coal in the (block was likely to be too highly swelling to be satisfactory for the gas industry, although blending with lowswelling coal might overcome that difficulty. It was perhaps suited to the manufacture of metallurgical coke, for which the New Zealand demand was limited.