BULLER GORGE URANIUM

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27990, 9 June 1956, Page 10

BULLER GORGE URANIUM

MORE ORE OUTCROPS NORTH OF RIVER

(From Our Own Reporter) WESTPORT, June 8.

After the discovery three weeks ago of uranium ore with the highest radioactivity count yet recorded, prospectors employed by the Nelson Lime and Marble Company have found other promising outcrops in four localities to the north of the lower Buller GorgeThe outcrops are all within a few square miles. New beds of radioactive rock have also been found about 30 chains west of the original find on the northern bank of the river. The occurrence of the many separate outcrops of ore raise hopes that it might be present in sufficient quantities to be worked economically. During the last week, the area in which the company is interested—rough, wet, and thick with bush—was inspected by three Government geologists and Dr. Gordon Williams, Dean of the Faculty of Mining and Metallurgy at Otago University. The company hopes to have the preliminary survey of its claims, on xvhich two prospectors have been employed for several weeks, completed by the end of this month.

There has been no activity on the south side of the Buller river for some weeks, and the claims marked out in the rush after the dicovery by Messrs F. Cassin and C. Jacobsen remain almost untouched. Almost half of those who made application for prospecting licences in the area have withdrawn them at the Warden’s Court.

A move by a group of claim holders to interest a company in extensive exploration work has not been success-