"WONDERCLAY."

Northern Advocate, 26 August 1924, Page 6

"WONDERCLAY."

INDUSTRY PROGRESSING,

(Contributed.)

Work is progressing steadily at the Wonderclay mines, Puhipuhi. The shed for drying, and machinery-room are finished, and machinery on the floor ready for "lining up" with the 7 horse-power engine. The briquett;.ng machine ordered from America has come to hand, and the trials have been

satisfactory.

Owing to the discovery of a valiiible scouring powder in a short drive :>t tlio hack of the building, an open cut. was put in. This cut another deposit of the same siliceous earth before reaching its objective, and twenty-five tons were obtained and stored in the shed. Work was then suspended there, as enough had been won for present

requirements. At the main wonderclav deposit, some hundreds of tons of overburden were stripped off and shot into the gully. This uncovered the clay, of splendid quality, which is now being won rapidly. As both classes dry a brilliant white, the slied appears to be filling with snow.

Water washing facilities are being installed in order to produce the highest class products for special lines. As no similar industry exists in N~ew Zealand Mr T. A. Black, the manager, has had to experiment and develop the system on his own initiative. Work has been hampered by the shocking condition of the road leading to the mine. The authorities put a grader over the road at the beginning of winter. Rain following turned it into a sea of mud. They thus wasted money, wasted labour and made the road worse than if they had left it alone. This caused delay in getting material on the ground and has prevented the manager getting material out whicli was ready for the market, thus adding another loss to those already enumerated.

It is expected that the machinery will be erected in about ten days, by which time the shed will have over 50 tons of material in it; and now new material can be won readily as required.