LAKE POWER SOUGHT Silica Industry For Southland Planned

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32213, 4 February 1970, Page 20

LAKE POWER SOUGHT Silica Industry For Southland Planned

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, February 3. A Japanese company hopes to set up a multi-million dollar industry in Southland based on silica deposits. A spokesman for the company, Mr M. Ikeda, confirmed tonight that his com* pany had been negotiating for rights to the deposits for some months.

Mr Ikeda said the company. Marubeni lida, a subsidiary of Showa Denko, K.K., hoped to use Manapouri power to produce ferro-silicon, which is used in steel production.

He said the plant envisaged would require more power than the Comalco aluminium smelting project and would employ more than 200 men, most of them New Zealanders.

He would not give any indication of the output envisaged but it is understood that every 1000 tons would require one megawatt of electricity. Comalco's allotment until 1976 is 300 megawatts out of a total productive capacity from the Manapouri station of 700 megawatts.

This suggests that Mirubeni lida is thinking in terms of 300,000 tons output a year

and at present prices this would be worth about s4sm, according to informed sources.

Mr Ikeda said that apart from supplying New Zealand’s steel needs, all the production would be for export Although Showa Denko K.K. isc one of the partners in the Comalco project Mr Ikeda said Mirubeni lida planned no partnership with Comalco at this stage, nor had it been

working in conjunction with Comalco. It is understood that during his negotiations with the Industries and Commerce and Electricity Departments Mr Ikeda was told that the Government was reluctant to supply Manapouri power on the scale his company wanted. The Crown has reserved about 200 megawatts of Manapouri power for its own use, either in the national grid or for other purposes. Not Available It is understood to have declined to make this available to Mirubeni lida. The Southland silica field contains millions of tons of 99 per 'Cent pure quartz deposits. It stretches from the Mataura Basin to Invercargill. Although the presence of silica in the district has been known for a long time it was not until late last year that the field was proved by scientists.