Report of phosphate deposit assessed

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32967, 13 July 1972, Page 12

Report of phosphate deposit assessed

(New Zealand Press Association)

BLENHEIM. July 12

While samples sent to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research had indicated traces of phosphate, there was nothing to show that phosphate was present in the quantities quoted by his father in Nelson yesterday. Mr S. E. Lawrence, jun., said in Blenheim today.

Mr Lawrence, jun., is the holder of a mineral prospecting licence in respect of a large area of hill country in Marlborough. Yesterday, Mr Lawrence, sen., said in Nelson that the area contained an estimated yield of 200,000 tons of phosphate to the acre and had an estimated value of s3ooom. Mr Lawrence, jun., said his father had been helping him with the drilling. However, the bore had collansed and they had been unable to drill further. He now proposed to abandon the drilling site and did not intend to renew his prospecting licence.

« “My father may have plans ■ to continue,” Mr Lawrence i said. i He said that he was unaware of the grounds on . which his father had made his estimates of the quantity j of nhosphate in the area, f! The Geological Survey’s j'Nelson representative, Mr M. fiR. Johnston, said he had no information to support Mr . Lawrence’s claim. ij “The presence of phosJphate in the quantity claimed his not considered very likely ' because of the general geoI logical nature of the Pine; ■ Valley area in Marlborough,” I ■ he said. j