NOT OLD DEPOSIT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 7 October 1942, Page 6

NOT OLD DEPOSIT

riIOSPHATE IN CLARENDON CLAIMS BY MR POLSON New Plymouth, Oct. 6. “The phosphate deposit 1 referred to is not an old deposit worked by the Ewing Phosphate Company, but a new one 200 feet higher up,” said Mr W. J. Poison, formerly Minister of Primary Production for War Purposes, when commenting at Stratford last night on a report that Otago experts do not support his claim that the Clarendon deposit may be worth £100.000,000 lo New Zealand. A Dunedin report stated that the deposit was worked by the Ewing Phosphat Company until 1925. when production ceased because of the inability of the company to compete with the higher grade Nauru phosphate. The company mined 132.000 tons Mr Poison explained that the deposit he referred to had never been worked. A prominent geologist had thought it worth investigating because it went right through the hill and is estimated to be worth £100,000,000. Mr Poison stated that what he told* a Christchurch reporter was what he had been informed by the geologist about the phosphate field at Clarendon. 30 miles from Dunedin. Other remarks attributed to him in the newspaper report were those of the geologist, not of Mr Poison’s.—P.A.