Demand For Mt Isa’s Products Rising

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31983, 9 May 1969, Page 6

Demand For Mt Isa’s Products Rising

(N.Z. Press Association—CopyriOht) CANBERRA, May 8. The rising international demand for minerals will enable Mount Isa Mines, Ltd, to find markets for its expanded production of silver, lead and zinc, Government industrial sources said today.

They were commenting on yesterday’s announcement that Mount Isa will embark on a huge expansion programme that will make it the world’s largest producer of silver, lead and zinc.

The officials said that the company obviously had calculated that world demand for the three metals would increase sufficiently to provide a “ready-made market” when Mount Xsa’s new output became evident in the 19705. Sir George Fisher, chairman of Mount Isa, announced in Brisbane yesterday that

the huge Queensland mining complex ha* decided to begin development on rich deposits in a northern lease which lies only 13 miles from the curre jle said that the new lease, when in full use about 1976, would double Mount Isa's current production. No indication has officially

been given of the amount needed for the new development, but some company sources say SlOOrn is "an absolute minimum.”

Geologists said today the existence of the new deposit had been known for some time. The company had obviously decided that market projections justified development of the deposit over the next seven years.

They said that recent projections of Australia’s future exports of minerals had proved conservative. Estimate* were being revised constantly and the trend was always upward. One possible barrier to exports of lead and zinc could be United ' States import quotas on these two minerals. Rising Demand

The United States maintained import quotas under pressure from domestic producers, said geologists and Government spokesmen, but rising demand in the United States could outstrip local production, leading to higher quotas from Australia. They said that Mount Isa Mines, Ltd, was a company which had more than 50 per cent of its capital held by the giant American Smelting and Refining Company. It was unlikely that this company would invest in expanded production if it was not confident that the metal could be sold profitably. Authorities said Japan’s booming economy would continue to need increasing quantities of lead and zinc. Industrialisation in other countries would also increase world demand.