MINING INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 9, 10 July 1912, Page 3

MINING INDUSTRY

ANNUAL REPORT GOLD AND COAL OUTPUT. The value of the mineral output for the year as disclosed in tho Mines Statement was £3,492,362, being a decrease of £282,536 as compared with the previous year ending 31st December. Tho gold output was valued at £1,943,369, j and the output of coal totalled 2,066,673 \ tons. During 1911 the kauri gum output was valued at £395,707, the value of tho export of this product to I date totalling the huge sum of £15,809,- | 152. Mining development generally, the report goes on to say, was unimportant, with the exception of the exploration for mineral oil. On the 3rd May, however, tho Taranaki Petroleum Company obtained the Government bonus of £2500 offered for the production of a quarter of a million gallons of crude petroleum. It was anticipated that tho same- company would vei'y shortly oam the second bonus of £2500 offered for a further quarter million gallons. Auriferous quartz mining still remains the most important branch of the mining industry in the Dominion. The value of bullion obtained from our quartzmines during 1911 amounted to £1,375,253. There had been a serious decline in tho production from the Waihi mine owing to the impoverishment of the lodes at the lower levels. Substantial increases, howovor, were recorded at other mines. In alluvial and dredge mining there had been an increase in gold production of £86,752. Tho number of persons employed in and about mines during the year was estimated at 11,690 (goldmines, 7400,coalmines, 4290). The output from the State collieries during 1911 amounted to 248,937 tons, a j decline of 26,665 tons compared with the I previous year. This decrease is due to the approaching exhaustion of the two State collieries at Seddonville and Point Elizabeth, but a new mine is being opened up. at the latter place and will be known as Point Elizabeth No. 11. The profit on the working of the State coalmines was less than it was the previous year owing^ to' higher cost of production and diminished output.