GOLD-DREDGING

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 153, 14 June 1932, Page 8

GOLD-DREDGING

DOMINION’S OPPORTUNITY USE OF MODERN METHODS. ENGLISH EXPERT’S ADVICE. Auckland, June 13. “A successful era of gold dredging could be inaugurated in New Zealand by the application of modern methods,” said Mr. F. W. Payne, an English mining engineer, who will leave by the Aorangi for Sydney to-day after spending six months inspecting the goldfields of the Dominion. “With the general world-wide shortage of gold, it becomes increasingly important that New Zealand, as a rich mineral country, should mobilise her forces of gold recovery to assist in the economic salvation of the Empire and the world,” said Mr. Payne to a “N.Z. Herald” representative. “When one reads of the old digging days and the amount of gold secured by handworking, it is evident that jvliere so much surface values have been obtained, there must still exist vast wealth in localities which could not be worked by primitive methods.” Early experimental mistakes, said Mr. Payne, could now be remedied. The chief requisite to success in regard to dredging was proper prospecting, the lack of which had caused so much trouble in the past. Since the dredging boom in New Zealand about 30 years ago, prospecting methods had advanced in important directions. In the Malay States, for instance, testing by boring had developed in the tin areas into almost an exact science, so much so as to put the success of any dredging venture there beyond doubt. It had to bo admitted that in that country and in Siam the ground was easy to bore by hand, so permitting investigation at comparatively small expense, whereas in New Zealand the deposits were very often of heavy, compacted boulder wash. A PROSPEROUS FUTURE. “It will thus bo seen that to prove an area of dredging ground in this country is unavoidably more expen' sive,” said Mr. Payne, “and this fact makes it more difficult to secure the capital for the initial work. With the successful introduction of a few dredging ventures, properly tested and then equipped with modern machinery, increasing confidence will be engendered, and development will become rapid, until within the next few years it seems safe to assume that gold dredging in New Zealand will become one of the most prosperous forms of mining, much in the same way as tinmining has been in the M.alay States up to within a year or 18 months ago Of course, the decline of tin-mining is due entirely to the disastrous drop in the price of the metal. With gold there are all the elements of the success that attended tin-dredging, but without the one weak spot of a possible slump in market value. The standard value of gold must always bo reckoned on, anything over this being in the nature of an unexpected bonus.” As to initial expense, that would be overcome when patience and persistence accomplished actual results which would inspire confidence. Once the expense of testing the ground was over the speculative element was probably less with regard to gold than in any form of business enterprise in which varying markets, trade competition, changes in tariffs, strikes, and the many ills to which ordinary business industry was liable, placed the existence of sveh concerns in constant danger. NEW TYPES OF DREDGE. “It would thus appear that from being a more or less perilous enterprise, gold-dredging may now become the safest of all investments,” concluded Mr. Payne. “I should add a word of warning. Avoid second-hand dredging plants. Out-of-date plant puts a constant drag on the success of any enterprise.” '

Improvements were constantly being made in dredging machinery, all tending to bring down the cost per yard of working. In the Malay States dredges had advanced from comparatively small affairs, many of which were still running, to huge vessels equipped with improved appliances. Some of them could now dig to a depth of 130 ft. below water-line, the largest having a displacement of over 4000 tons. These latest dredges could make a handsome profit out of the working expenses of the earlier and now obsolete type of machine.