REPORTED PLATINUM FIND.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 4524, 24 February 1922, Page 3

REPORTED PLATINUM FIND.

VALUE NOT ESTABLISHED

DISCOVERY IN SOUTHLAND

(Per Press Association.) Invercargill, Feb. 22. Considerable excitement has been created by the reported discovery of a rich find of platinum in the Pukomaori district, which lies in the neighbourhood of Tuatapere. It is stated that an old European prospector and a Chinaman have been getting the metal in payable quantities for some time past, but recently they struck" a pocket representing un-dreamt-of wealth. At this time, when there is a ,certain amount of unem-_ ployment, such a story possesses a special interest, and some optimists in one or two of the old mining townships of the district have been looking forward to a rush, recalling the prosperity of the old gold digging days. . - , „ However, it now appears that all that glitters may not be platinum, and the doubt is in the minds of a number of old miners that the mineral is only zircon, a much baser metal. Samples have been sent to .the Dunedin School of Mines, but so far no information has com« to hand. The district where the find took place is said by experienced men to nave tho appearance of mineral countiy. ,