Asbestos mine plan dropped

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32849, 24 February 1972, Page 2

Asbestos mine plan dropped

Zealand Pro* 4**odat<en> DUNEDIN, February 23. Mineral prospecting in the Pyke River area of west Otago—a region thought to be rich in asbestos deposits —has been abandoned in the meantime by an Australian branch of an Ameri-can-based mining company.

Kennecott Exploration (Australia) Pty, Ltd, which holds the prospecting rights to a number of areas in the south-west of the South Island, faces a sloom bill this year for anti-pollution measures just introduced in the United States.

“The company says it has withdrawn temporarily to consolidate," the Otago district inspector of mines and quarries (Mr A. G. Palmer) said today.

Among the company’s interests was the Pyke River asbestos.

"Tire firm has probably spent up to half a million dollars on prospecting there in the last year or two,” Mr Palmer said. “Their area, about 50,000 acres, is in a remote region. Drilling rigs had to be flown in by helicopter.” He felt the scheme had good potential. Fiordland offered prospects of massive mineral development, but its

inaccessibility was a thwarting factor. Promising mining probes in Otago included an investigation of a 6000-acre tract near the Maerewhenua River, in the Livingston area. “A local syndicate has persuaded an Australian company to investigate the area’s gold resources. Preliminary prospecting has been encouraging, and they intend to drill the river flats to see if mining would be viable,” Mr Palmer said.

A Sydney-based company’s scheelite investigations in the Macrae’s Flat area had also proved encouraging.

N.Z. aid.—The R.N.Z.A.F. Hercules now carrying a New Zealand Red Cross unit to Dacca would be made available to the International Red Cross Committee for up to two weeks to distribute supplies within Bangladesh, said the Prime Minister (Mr Marshall) yesterday.—(P.A.)