GOLD PRODUCTION

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 270, 11 August 1938, Page 8

GOLD PRODUCTION

Figures For 1937 Record

For Past 18 Years

SEARCH FOR PETROLEUM

Gold production for 1937 was the largest recorded in the past eighteen years, according to the annual report of tire Mines Department which was tabled in the House of Representatives yesterday. The value of minerals, including kauri-gum, exported and of the coal used in the Dominion amounted to £3,916,176, as compared with £3,691,419 during 1936. The total value of such minerals exported to the end of 1937 amounted to £199,875,932. During the year 612,4680 z. of bullion, valued at £1,319,743 was produced, an increase in quantity of 14,9200 z., ami in value of £47,156, as compared with the previous year. The gold content of the bullion is estimated at 168,487 oz., valued at £1,279,893. The estimated gold production for the past eight years has been as fol lows: —

As in the previous year, quartzmining and alluvial-mining both showed appreciable decreases, the reductions being 30620 z. and 64760 z. respectively. On the other hand, dredgemining was responsible for a substantial increase of 13,4500 z.

The gold output of the Martha mine was 54,5520 z., an increase of 14440 z. For the Waihi Grand Junction and the Golden Dawn mines reductions of 28960 z. and 1680 oz. respectively were recorded. The principal quartz mine in the South Island, the Blackwater mine, showed a decrease of 7200 z. The substantial drop in the returns from alluvial mining was due to the following three factors —-the closing of the King Solomon mine, the extremely dry summer in Otago and Southland, and the heavy reduction in the number of prospectors engaged under the Labour Department’s schemes. Goldfields Revenue. The amount of goldfields revenue received and credited to the accounts of local bodies during the year ended March 31, 1938, was £19,505/3/4, a decrease of £3437/11/8 compared with the previous year. During the same period the total of the three duties on exported gold amounted to £114,694 13/3, of which £6918/19/4 was credited to the accounts of local bodies under section 12 of the Gold Duty Act, 1908. The special export duty of 12/6 per ounce amounted to £105,412/8/7, which sum was paid into the Consolidated Fund.

“Interest is still being maintained in the mining Industry, although the number of licences granted has decreased,” states the report. “During

the year ended March 31, 1938, 743 licences for mining privileges were granted under the provisions of the Mining Act, 1926," as compared with 938 for the previous year. Out of this number, 146 were licences for claims authorising the holders to mine for gold. For the same period 187 mining privileges,- including 78 licences for claims, were struck off the registers under the provisions of section 188 of the Act.”

No boring for petroleum was carried out in 1937. From the Nos. 1,2 and 4 wells of Moturoa Oilfields Ltd., at Moturoa, Taranaki, 132,972 gallons of crude petroleum oil was obtained. From the Kotuku field on the West Coast of the South Island 1487 gallons was recovered. The Dominion’s total production of crude petroleum oil to December 31, 1937, is estimated at 2,765,796 gallons. New Era in Search For Oil. The passing of the Petroleum Act, 1937, is described by the Minister of Mines, Hon. I>. C. Webb, as marking the commencement of a new era in oil search in New Zealand. “It is now possible,” he says, “for strong organisations to obtain prospecting rights over areas sufficiently large to justify substantial expenditure on what, from a financial point of view, can as yet only be regarded as a venture of a most hazardous nature. la the event of oil being discovered in commercial quantities the Act provides that the requirements of the Dominion must be satisfied before any oil is exported. “Since the Act came into force I have received seventy-eight applications for petroleum-prospecting licences covering several thousand square miles of country. Many of these applications overlapped one another, and, after very careful investigation, I recently announced my decisions as to the allotment of specific areas among various applicants. lam very pleased to be able to state that already definite action has been taken by one group of important interests. Scientific and technical personnel have arrived in the Dominion, preliminary work in the nature of reading and housing has been undertaken, and a drilling plant of the most modern and efficient type has been landed and is about to be erected in the Poverty Bay district."

Year. 19.30 Oz. 120.931 1931 129,861 1932 166,354 1933 ...... 161,755 1934 ...... ...... 160,248 1935 ...... 165,277 193G ...... 164,575 1937 ...... 168,487