Con. Brick may have viable platinum deposit

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32450, 10 November 1970, Page 26

Con. Brick may have viable platinum deposit

Consolidated Brick and Pipe Investments, Ltd, said in a letter to the Stock Exchange Association of New Zealand yesterday that jointly with Georgia Kaolin Company of New Jersey, United States, they had discovered a sulphide deposit near Kerikeri which would appear to be of economic significance.

"After conflicting analyses in New Zealand and Australia, it was decided to have a full assay carried out by one of the leading precious metal refiners in the world, Johnson Matthey and Company, Ltd, of Hatton Gardon, London. “Results of this work just to hand show that iron pyrites is the predominant sulphide, and platinum is the main precious ihetal present, with lesser amounts of palladium, gold and silver. “The deposit is shaped like a basin, approximately half a mile in diameter, and contains some 30 per cent of sulphides by weight in a very fine form suspended and evenly disseminated in a matrix of soft clay and bentonite,” the report says. “There is less than 20ft of overburden, and from the drilling to date, it appears that the crude is in excess of 50 million tons.” At least 12 months work will now -be necessary to establish the exact nature and value of the deposit and to determine the technology necessary to achieve the most economical and efficient concentration of the precious metal ores.

At the same time a feasibility study will be undertaken to find out whether or not it will be profitable to extract the precious metals present, said the letter. The deposits are owned by

Consolidated Brick, and its United States partner on a 50-50 basis. The late Mr Atts, then the company chairman, said in the annual reports published in August, that a technical team of Consolidated Brick had been exploring the country for four years. Several discoveries were made and extensive tonnages of high aluminium clays, silica, soda-lime, feldspar, perlite and sulphides were being further investigated, he said then. All these deposits were proved to be forge by world

standards, and investigations were proceeding to determine the possibilities of commercial exploitation of—"these exciting discoveries.” The company also says that it had made a private placement of 300,000 ordinary shares at a premium for cash. The purpose of the issue is to provide funds for the company’s capital work programme, a statement from the company says. No further details were given.