MINERALS FOUND

Press, Volume C, Issue 29567, 17 July 1961, Page 7

MINERALS FOUND

Aboriginals Work Lease (From the Sydney Correspondent of "The Press’’] SYDNEY. White man’s civilisation may not have been an unmixed blessing for the Australian aboriginal, but two native brothers this week can count the gains that modern life have bestowed on them. The brothers, Messrs Dan and Don Todd, have prospecting licences on a station 50 miles north of Lalgoo, which is 385 miles from Perth. They have learned that their lease is rich in minerals —beryl and tantalite. Beryl is a metal as light as magnesium and exceptionally hard. Scientists recently found that it can be used to control fission in an atomic reactor. Tantalite is the ore which yields tantalum, used in special alloys requiring hardness and resistance to corrosion. Merely by scratching the surface, the Todd brothers have extracted £3OOO worth of beryl and £BOO worth of tantalite. But geologists believe the deposits are the richest yet discovered in Western Australia. The area also contains a lode of tin. Some of the beryl crystals mined were three feet across and weighed a ton. “Nearly all the work done so far is on development and we are sending away only enough beryl to finance it,” said Mr Don Todd, who has been granted Australian citizen rights. Mr Todd said that he had send away 3291 b of tantalite which assayed at 66 per cent. He was extracting the alluvial tantalite using , a mechanical dry - blower mounted on a T-model Ford chassis. He and his brother had had in offer for the beryl area, >ut they had rejected it They intended to work the wo minerals themselves, but night go into partnership with someone who had mining experience. To do the big find justice they would need a crushing plant, mechanical separators, drilling and mining equipment.