Reappraisal Of Antarctic Mineral Potential Needed

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28480, 9 January 1958, Page 9

Reappraisal Of Antarctic Mineral Potential Needed

(Rec. 8.30 p m.) 1 NEW YORK, January 8 ‘ The advent of atomic-powered • ice-breakers, new types of icebreaking cargo ships, designs for ' portable nuclear power units, and 1 new means of Polar transport had enforced a reappraisal of the ■ Antarctic’s potential, the “New < York Times” said today. The newspaper said that pre- , sumably the Antarctic Continent , had mineral resources compar- . able to those of other large land j masses. The “New York Times” said that according to the most recent ; estimates, less than 1 per cent, of < Antarctica’s surface had been ] visited by explorers, although a ( larger portion had been flown < over. 1 ‘To date this scratching of its i geological surface has revealed no deposits of major commercial im- 1 portance, although there appears I to be a vast coalfield near the South Polar plateau,” the news- i paper said. Some believed this i coalfield to be one of the world’s : largest, it said. “Nevertheless,** it said, “there ■ is good prospect of finding worth- i while deposits of other types. ! The 1000-mile backbone of i

Palmer Peninsula is clearly an extension of the Aendean chain, and hence might contain veins of tin, copper, gold and silver such as those in the mountain nations of South America.” The newspaper said that last year, on the Wilkes Coast on the opposite side of the Antarctic, a small vein of tephroite, a rare manganese ore, was found. It was regarded as significant, not because of its own value, but as a clue to other deposits of commercial importance which might lie in the same region. Tephroite was usually found in association with rich deposits of other minerals. The vein found protruded from rocks swept clean by the ice sheet, which subsequently had receded, leaving this portion of the coast largely ice-free. "Although Antarctica is burdened with a massive ice-sheet—-by far the largest on this planet —there are thousands of square miles that are free of ice and snow.” the “New York Times” "New means of travel such as the long-range helicopters that are making their Antarctic debut have made such regions accessible.”