BAUXITE WANTED

Grey River Argus, 31 July 1940, Page 10

BAUXITE WANTED

AUSTRALIAN NEED. SYDNEY, July 16. Defence authorities emphasise that it is of the utmost importance to the Empire that efforts should be made to discover more bauxite deposits m Australia. Bauxite is the ore from which alumjnium, essential for aircraft manufacture, is produced. It is suggested that State Government geologists’ departments should be mobilised in an Australian-wide search. Geologists say that few of the bauxite deposits so far discovered in Australia are completely suited to the production of aluminium by processes standardised in the United States and Europe. Most of them contained only moderate quantities of aluminium. r They carry proportions of silica or iron that may make their treatment difficult. The same experts believe, however, that it is only a matter of searching to find completely suitable deposits. The principal deposits at present known are on the Darling Ranges, in the south of Western Australia, and at Wingello and Emmaville in New South Wales. Oversea experts consider that some analyses of the Western Australian deposits suggest that bauxite of sufficiently high aluminium content lies in that State. Thp Western Australian Government recently stated its intention of making a thorough examination of the Darling Ranges deposits. It was pointed out that plans already in existence for the creation of an Australian aluminium industry provide for the use of imported bauxite from India, Burma and British Guiana, if local supplies are not available. The Australian industry is planned first to produce aluminium from aluminium imported in the solid, and later to make its pwri aluminium. The war has interfered With the plans, but production of alumihiUth sheets at least, it is stated, should hot be deferred past next year.