EXPORT OF GOLD

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 29, 28 October 1932, Page 10

EXPORT OF GOLD

Shipments in September Valued at £113,275 HIGHEST FOR YEARS More gold was exported from New Zealand during September than during any single month for many years, according to a statement made yesterday by Mr. A. H. Kimbell, Undersecretary for Mines. The export for the month was 20,347 ounces of gold, valued at £113,275, ratlier less than a sixth of the total gold export for last year. Mr. Kimbell said that from January 1 last to September 30, prospectors alone had sold 12,620 ounces of gold, valued at £55,674. This amount was much higher than the corresponding figure for 1931, and it was considered that the number of prospectors had increased by 400 or 500 per cent. During the first nine months of the pres ent year the average monthly revenues for gold actually sold of Individual prospectors had ranged from £B/18/b to £l3/8/-. The largest number of prospectors was in Central Otago, but there were also many men working in the Thames, Coromandel, Nelson ana West Coast districts. The total export figures for the first nine months of the present year, compared with the corresponding figures for last year, also showed a substantial increase. The figures were as follow:— lj)31 1932 Total gold export .. Total value £410,648 £ To encourage prospectors, the Mines Department is at present circulating two valuable leaflets, “Fossicking and Prospecting for Gold” and “Notes on the Taking of Samples of Mineral Deposits, and the Valuation of Mining Prospects.” In the first the department remarks that the leaflet has been prepared, “describing the best ways of seeking for and saving gold, in the hope that it will be of real service to the workers, especially those Who have had little previous experience of prospecting, and thus lead to the opening of new finds, with consequent Increased production and the opening up of avenues for the useful employment of more and more men. The ensuing sections of the leaflet, which Is illustrated with diagrams, are devoted to areas for prospecting, prospecting for reefs, prospecting for alluvial gold, fossicking and methods of saving gold, including cradling, boxing, banjoing and ground sluicing.