AUSTRALIAN SEARCH FOR ORES

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6812, 16 January 1929, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN SEARCH FOR ORES

Scientists From Britain to Investigate

SYDNEY, Jan. 10.' So encouraging liavc been the preliminary experiments in geophysical survey in Australia by electrical and gravimetrical methods that a new research section is now being formed to investigate the possibility of seismic methods. Fresh apparatus has arrived from Britain, and the personnel of the section is now being Chosen. Experiments in geophysical survey are being conducted, under tho auspices of the Commonwealth Government, with the object of ascertaining Australia’s mineral resources. A partv of scientists was brought from England last year, under the leadership of Mr. Broughton Edge, to conduct a two-years’ investigation into the merits of the systems used. The scheme was suggested by the Empire Marketing Board, which is sharing the cost with the Commonwealth Government. At present the two sections in existence are working separately in their search for possible .fields of copper, iron and sulphide ores. Tho electrical section will shortly go to Tasmania where work on the Zechan, Read-Roseberry, and RennisonBcll mining fields has been suggested. The gravimetrical section, which has been mapping the outer reaches of the brown coalfields in Victoria, will probably go to New South Wales. The work is being followed closely by. the various State Departments of Mines, for when the survey party presents its final report this will act. as a guide for private interests. State authorities have suggested the various areas for investigation, and State experts arc attached to the parties for experience. The visiting scientists are also training four Australians in the methods used, so that they will leave experts behind when they return home at the end of their engagement in 1930. The work is described as being.very interesting from a scientific point of view, as it is based on new theories and has not yet been definitely proved. Valuable results are claimed for it in other countries, particularly in Scandinavia, where rich iron ore deposits have been discovered under glacier moraines, deposits of earth and rock which had hitherto concealed the true naturo of the ground beneath. In the electrical method of survey, two steel stakes arc driven into the ground some distance apart, and alternating currents are passed from one to the other by means of a dynamo. The current passes through the earth in various “lines of force,” and these aro thrown out of their different courses if ore deposits exist. Continuous trial enables tbo scientists to map cut the area of the ore field, and then the geologist is called in to determine tho naturo of the ore. In the gravimetric method the effect created on gravity forces by ore deposits beneath the ground is measured mathematically by means of a torsion balance. The new seismic section will adopt a method of measuring concussion vibrations. A deposit of explosives will be placed in tho centre of a circle of seismographs, which are more familiarly known as instruments for measuring earthquakes. When the explosive is fired off the seismographs, it is expected, will be able to indicate the amount of distortion of concussion vibrations caused by the presence or absence of ore.