MINING IN NEW ZEALAND

Evening Star, Issue 17924, 21 March 1922, Page 4

MINING IN NEW ZEALAND

INTERVIEW WITH MINISTER. ACTIVITY IN GOLD AND COA&. AMERICANS DEEDOHTO KIKTX FLAT. Catching tho Hon. G. J. Anderson ia a leisure- moment this morning, a reporter asked him if the.ro was anythiiig moving in his Department of Mines, and the following interesting information was disclosed: — . There are good indications of goid a» the Thames, the scene of tho big sensational rush in the sixties. Men there are prospecting for new reefs and endeavoring to discover the continuations of old ones. There exists a well-founded belief that tho payable gold is not all taken out there. Another old «oldfield on the same peilin-gulsr-Coroinajulel—w nbo attracting attention again. One of the supposed-to-be-workecl-out mines is boing reopened, and the prospects are very good. Ooromandol was one of the very hist goltffiolds to bo worked in New Zealand.

About To Puke, in the Bay of Plenty, it is fully expected that prospecting will result in tho finding of more quartz reefs. The enterprise of tho American parly at Rimu Flat, near Hokitika., .is being rewarded. Tho dredging there is turning out nil right. . Tho Americans are operating on a field that was tested by Government drills some years ago. Tlic results of that testing were published at the time in a departmental report which was available to anybody and everybody. But it was left to the Americans to make practical use of that report. They sent men. to test the ground in order to verify tho borings by the department, and, finding them reliable, they brought over their owji dredge, set it up at Rimu Flat, and have done so well with it during a trial of three or four months that they are talking of planing a second dredgc/in the vicinity, Sinco I came to Dunedin a project haa been put before me with the view oi further prospecting for gold in Ota go; but as the details are not yet formulated I cannot say anything about tho proposals. As to coal, prospecting parties are out in various parte of tho West Coast of tho South Island. The Reef ten people aro hopefully turning their attention to coal, being now assured flint huge unworked beds aro at their service, and thai a good market can be found for the coal, if satisfactory arrangements can be made for railing and shipping. At Onakaka, in tho Nelson district, a company is just about ready to start smelling iron ore. I regard IW« a.s a promising enterprise, and as soon as 1 can get time after returning to Wellington I shall take a. run to that place and see. what is doing.