URANIUM AND OIL

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28543, 24 March 1958, Page 10

URANIUM AND OIL

Large Deposits In N.Z. Possible

(New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, March 23.

Large oil and uranium deposits were more than a possibility in New Zealand, Professor B. H. Mason, curator of mineralogy at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, said shortly after his arrival in Dunedin tonight.

“When the neys of the discovery of uranium here came to my notice, I immediately wrote to some friends for some samples I discovered they were of the same coarse sandstone in which uranium is found on the Colorado Plateau.

“I think there is a good chance of finding deposits which are workable in New Zealand. It is quite a problem to narrow the area to a sufficient economic size, but it has been overcome in Colorado and it probably could be done here.”

Commenting on the possibility of oil-bearing deposits in the Dominion, Professor Mason said it was obvious that with the attention being given to this country by large oil firms, it was a "fair” possibility that oil would be found here in quantity.

“Other countries have discovered oil—countries with a similar history of exploration to New Zealand. The possibility of oil being here must be considered until it has been adequately disproved.” For the last few weeks, Professor Mason has been working in the Southern Alps area between Arthur’s Pass and Lake Wakatipu on, as he terms it, a “purely scientific survey.”