MINING

Evening Star, Issue 16988, 10 March 1919, Page 8

MINING

THE GOLD INDUSTRY.

The disabilities tmder which. it was stated the gold niiniiig industry suffered were brought (under the notice of the Acting Prime Minister ( Sir James AT on) at Lawrence on Saturday, when a deputation from the Mining Association waited on the Minister concerning the matter. Mr W. B. Smyth suggested that a competent departmental mining engineer or other export should bo sent abroad—say to tbo United States of America —with a view to his learning tho most up-to-date methods for the treatment of alluvial t material in a wholesale manner - . The ’largest known alluvial deposit in Now Zealand was the groat cement deposit extending in a south-easterly line from Blue Spur to tile ocean. In his geological report on tho TWpeka district Dr Marshall estimated that the treatment of this deposit would provide work for hundreds of years, and that its gold content was worth several millions of pounds All the free alluvial gold obtained from GabrieFs Gully and adjacent fields ms believed to have come from this deposit. The monetary assistance granted to mining up to date had not been productive of any very satisfactory results, and it was conceivable that infinitely more satisfactory results might bo achieved on different lines. For instance, it was, Mr Smyth contended, highly probable that some of tho mechanical contrivances used in tho excavation of large earthworks, such as tho Panama Canal, might bo adapted for the rapid and wholesale breaking down of tins cement deposit, and so admit of its boinj? treated on a hitherto unknown scale. It, therefore, acting on expert advice, tho Government could see their way to import one or more of the machines deemed to bo most suitable, with a view to proving their efficiency, it might readily, be imagined how their -success would open up a new era of prosperity for the mining industry of tho Tuapeka and oilier districts. Mr Smyth suggested also that the Mine.' l)c----partmoiit might gather information from all the gold-pioducing c.-.uiitric? regarding the method of treatment and recovery of gold, especially in ivlalion to alluvial deposits. and make this, information available to all time engaje.i in . the ;-old mining ina.i-ir, in tile Dominion.- • The Minister .-am -. hrt lie could not- make a indefinite sla'c'.'. a on ’.l;e m.-.i ter-. lei! would disi o them with fhe Minister of Mines a« s>-r».i a? he had an opp-artnn.iiy. with a view u, considering whether it would be -.rlvi,•;.')!(, to .-end an export abroad to sirdy in use rpieslions. or lo obtain an exper! from a birr'd to „o iniu {he rpiesfions in Xor Zealand ;mul give an opinion vj-.m them.