IRON SANDS.

Northern Advocate, 20 October 1920, Page 4

IRON SANDS.

iYEW ZEALAND DEPOSITS.

Writing m "Engineering," Mr J. A. Heskctt says the iron ore deposits ou the coasts of New Zealand originated from one or more upheavals, at sea, of molten oxides which, when in contact with the water, immediately granulated. The fact that throughout the soils of the interior a few grains can ha collected, some far removed from the sea front, can be expisiined by their having been windblown, like shell-rock deposits which abound at various parts* The composition of the irousand will vary according to the locality, no two samples ever being identical, although at \arious points of the coast, where the concentrating action of the heavy sea lias thrown up, and so concentrated the blue-black oxide, the analysis is fairly constant. Although readily accessible at various points, the deposits are by no means inexhaustible in the European or American sense, although they would go far to supply the demands of New Zealand, There is no doubt that at certain points of the coast there are places where the concentration is ever-last-ingly throwing up iron oxide. Whether it would form a sufficient source of supply is a debatable point. It is often, stated that tie iron produced from iron-sand is sluggish and cannot be tapped from the furnace, or that only high carbon steel can be made from iron-sand ,and that grey iron cannot be produced. These statements nre based on experiments whereby only the same time for reduction of a soft hematite or Irnionitp similar to Parapara was allowed for iron-sand. This has been the ruination, of practically all attempts to utilise the ironsands of New Zealand.