FACTORY TO EXPLOIT CHINA CLAY RESERVES

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30445, 20 May 1964, Page 9

FACTORY TO EXPLOIT CHINA CLAY RESERVES

AUCKLAND, May 19. At Matauri Bay, a little known but beautiful cove in the far north, a factory which could save New Zealand thousands of pounds in overseas exchange is being built. A virtually inexhaustible supply .of more than seven million tons of high-grade china clay has been discovered at Matauri Bay and the factory will extract and treat it ready for use. , The supply has been confirmed by drilling tests car-

ried out by the Ministry of Mines and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. The existence of a further 10 .million tons has been suggested by geological surveys carried out.

Since 1960 the clay has been extracted commercially, but because of the inaccessibility of Matauri Bay the processing factory, which handles from 2000 to 2400 tons of clay a year, was established at Kaeo. So successful has the factory been that the company owning it, Clay Enterprises, Ltd., is at present building a new factory, costing between £lO,OOO and £15,009, at Matauri Bay. It will be ready in June and will have a capacity of 20,000 tons of clay a year. The manager of the company (Mr E. O. Williams') said that clay from the deposit saved New Zealand £50,000 in overseas funds last year. With the new factory .this should be doubled. In addition, the company hopes to build up an export market. The clay is used in paper mills, cosmetics, adhesives and paint, in addition to the usual pottery industries. Last year much of the clay from the Kaeo plant went to the Crown pottery works in Auckland. It is expected that the new fertiliser works, due to begin producing in Whangarei in October, may' utilise some superfluous acid from its sulphuric plant by combining it with clay to manufacture aluminium sulphate. “Taking the export market into account,” said Mr Williams, “we have only scratched the surface of the industry as yet.”