ORE IN PLENTY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 41, 18 February 1941, Page 8

ORE IN PLENTY

BUT NO PRODUCTION

ALUMINIUW! IN AUSTRALIA

(By Trans-Tasman Air Mall—From "The Post's" Representative.)

'''■'■' • SYDNEY, February 8. Production of aluminium from Australian bauxite cannot get.beyond .the """talking stage." The Commonwealth Government has expressed a willingness to encourage production, the New -South Wales Government claims large ; fields of aluminium ore in this State, and metallurgists declare that they "/possess processes which could make : Australia self-sufficient in the supply j v. of this important metal. Yet nothing - has been done to start production. Claims that the cosit of production! 7 would not warrant the initial financial I;',outlay, estimated by one manufacturer of aluminium from imported in,'gots at £1,000,000, are countered with "-.. charges of opposition to the birth of -'"the new industry by overseas interests , ■ and influences "higher up." '" A survey by the New South Wales Mines Department of the WingelloBundanoon area revealed that there were available approximately 4,000,000 tons of ore, containing on an average 33 per cent, available alumina. In the Inverell-Tingha and Emmaville district • a' tonnage far in excess of that at vl.Wingellb had been disclosed, averag:'ing possibly 35 per cent, to 40 per cent. 1- alumina. * :• In general, the quality of New South Wales ores is inferior to that of ma--"terial drawn upon for the manufacture of aluminium in other parts of :- the world, but some restricted occurrences here compare favourably with ' the quality of some ore treated in "Russia. . "'" The difficulty of treatment of the ore is considerable,,as large blocks of i( .direct current power would be required to produce the metal in com-;-mercial quantities. A process of treat-

ment, however, was recently discov-

' ered by four young students at the v Sydney Technical' College, experiment- , ing in their spare time. A well-known metallurgist, Mr. A. W. Dye,

also has patented a process and he '; states that before long Australia will --:;,i>e manufacturing sufficient aluminium -for her requirements.