Min. Res new plant expected to help

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33712, 9 December 1974, Page 26

Min. Res new plant expected to help

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND. Mineral Resources (N.Z.), Ltd, has had “restricted success,” but additional goldextraction equipment being installed is expected to help achieve a profitable future.

Financed by the Fletcher Mining and exploration Company, Ltd, under a deal that gives the, company an option on unissued capital to a ceiling of 30 per cent ownership, Mineral Resources purchased from the receiver "at a satisfactory price” the plant, stores, and equipment of Norpac Mining, Ltd, and itis uncommitted mineral tenements at Waihi, Te Aroha, Waikino, Mackytown, and Thames. “Now that we have good weather, the plant is going on to extended shift-work, thus further increasing throughput and recovery potential,” the chairman (Mr A. W. L. Baker) said at the annual meeting. “The full effect of these changes will not be experienced till the new year, but we are very hopeful that by March 31 we will have substantially, if not fully,

made up for the low recoveries in the firet six months of the current financial year, and that this improved recovery rate will continue thereafter.

“That is not a prediction or an estimate, but a target the company’s management has set itself,” Mr Baker said.

Referring to the possibility of a call on unpaid capital, Mr Baker said that the company had been able to live within itis resources and a call was not being considered. “If earnings are at a satisfactory level, the present situation will continue. If they are not and other finance is not available, a call may have to be considered,” he said.

“The price of gold has again rocketed to record levels and there is every prospect of it remaining at around this level or going even higher, because of the lifting of restrictions on the private ownership of gold in the United States, and other world factors.

"This is of vital importance to the future of this company, and its profit potential,” Mr Baker said. Mr Baker retired as Chairman, but remains a member of the board. Dr J. S. Watt, a Fletcher Mining and Exploration appointee to the board, was elected chairman.