South Auckland Site For Steel Expected

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30575, 19 October 1964, Page 3

South Auckland Site For Steel Expected

(From Our Own Reporter! WELLINGTON, October 18. A recommendation that a £l4 million iron and steel industry should be established in the upper part of the North Island is expected to be made within a fortnight, when Messrs McLelland and Partners and W. S. Atkins and Partners, of London, make their report.

Although there are vast deposits of ilmenite and tiano-magnetite ironsand along most of the coastline on the west side of both islands, together with adjacent coalfields and hydro-electric resources, the consultants have not deviated from the original suggestion that the new industry should be sited in the South Auckland area.

The consultants have established beyond doubt that an industry centred on New’ Zealand’s ironsand is eminently feasible.

Tests conducted overseas have proved difficulties caused by the presence of titanium salts in the ironsand ore can be overcome by the use of a type of electrolytic smelting instead of the more usual blast-furnace.

This was first suggested some years ago, when experiments carried out at Victoria University established the feasibility of the electric

furnace, used in conjunction with lower grade New Zealand coal.

At that time, arrangements were being made with a firm in Oslo to test commercial quantity of New Zealand ironsand and coal in existing furnaces on the Continent. CHANGE OF GOVT.

The advent of the Labour Government halted these investigations, for legislation was brought in making it illegal to export ilmenite or titano-magnetite in any quantity. A State-directed investigation proceeded along similar lines, and led to the settingup of the New Zealand Steel Investigating Company.

Earlier suggestions had been that New Zealand’s industrial and population problems might be eased if an iron and steel industry were established in one of the southern centres of ironsand or coal production.

Areas mentioned then were Kawhia, in the North Island, and certain parts of the Karamea bight and the Greymouth area, in the South Island. In all of these areas, supplies of ore and coal were plentiful, and some economic difficulties were being experienced because of the drift of population to centres of greater production. A great deal of “proving” investigation was required, but this has been carried out, at least in some areas, by the Mines Department, over a number of years. The New Zealand Steel Investigation Company, the chairman of the provisional board of directors of which is Sir Woolf Fisher, has always been most interested in the South Auckland area.

Earlier statements, made before there had been any conclusive body of investigation, indicated this was the most likely site. Recent investigations and drilling have centred in the Franklin county, between Waikato, North Head, Manakau south head, Pukekohe and Tuakau. The actual site has not yet been determined, but one plan is for a travelling belt-line to convey the ore from Waikato north head to a mill sited further inland. WAIKATO WATER The intention is to use water from the Waikato river in the plant, which would also require significant charges of electricity from the grid. The site will cover nearly 245 acres, with possible additions after the initial establishment. These will be needed for such “extras” as the reclaiming of titanium—probably in the form of the valuable titanium oxide—after the main process. It is assumed the project has already been accepted in principle by the Government. The Cabinet will have to approve the details before the site is fixed, detailed planning can be completed, or tenders for the plant can be called. One suggestion is that the building of the mill coufd be started about next July. The consultants are likely to be entrusted with the establishment of the works and the training of staff. This, of course, will follow Cabinet discussions which are not likely to begin until after Parliament rises in mid-No-vember or later.

Although it is expected there will be some strong representations to site the steel industry on the West Coast, it has been stated fairly bluntly in a higher quarter that they will not succeed. The reason given is that the new industry is so vitally important thrt its product must be given every chance to succeed on a cost basis.

Location on the West Coast, it is said, would mean long journeys, possibly by special steel freighters, to the main centres of population, with a consequent rise in the cost of the product.