S.I. Steel ‘Might Be Profitable’

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30868, 29 September 1965, Page 18

S.I. Steel ‘Might Be Profitable’

(New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, Sept. 28. A steel industry based on South Island sands might prove more profitable for New Zealand than that to be based on the North Island ironsands, Professor M. E. Volin, director of the Institute of Mineral Research at Michigan Technological University, said in Dunedin today.

This was because of the additional export products that could be obtained from the West Coast sands to earn foreign exchange, and the possible revival of gold production.

“In my opinion New Zealand’s steel needs will have to grow enormously before the North Island industry will become profitable,” he said.

Beach sands containing el<nenite and a variety of other heavy minerals, including garnet, zircon, magnetite, rutile, monazite and gold, are the subject of a study being conducted by Professor Volin in rhe University of Otago mineral technology department, under a Fulbright research grant.

“These sands, which are distributed for some 200 miles along the west coast of the South Island, are one of New Zealand’s largest mineral resources and perhaps as extensive as any other deposits of this type in the worhi,” he said. MOST PREVALENT Ilmenite, a chemical combination of titanium and iron oxides, is the most prevalent of the heavy minerals in the sands and zircon is present in commercial quantities. The gold, rutile, monazite I

and magnetite occur in much smaller amounts but still may be found economically recoverable.

A co-product of a process employing electric furnace reduction of ilmenite would be low-carbon iron similar to I the sorrel metal produced in .Canada. Professor Volin said. “Thus, if the South Island • ilmenite sands are exploited. New Zealand may have another source of steel in addition to that under development in the North Island. “A South Island industry producing export products and semi-steel might be better geared to New Zealand’s modest steel needs for the immediate future than an industry which will produce only steel for local consumption and u’hich will have to attain a high capacity to become profitable,” he said. Professor Volin said that a rigorous comparison of the potentialities of the North Island and South Island sand deposits could not be made now because the South Island occurrences had not been fully surveyed and tested. STUDIES CONFIRMED Sampling investigation of a reconnaissance nature conducted by Government agencies had been confined to the active beaches and foredunes, and testing had been concerned only with the recovery of ilmenite.

The much larger sand reserves in old beaches and dunes and the occurrences of other valuable minerals had not been accorded much attention.

However, Professor Volin noted a geological survey of the Westport area by the D.S.I.R. was now in progress and other investigations were in the planning stage.