USE OF IRONSAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22391, 11 April 1936, Page 14

USE OF IRONSAND

TARANAKI DEPOSITS OVERSEAS FIRMS' INTEREST CONCESSIONS BEING SOUGHT [bt telegraph—own correspondent] NEW PLYMOUTH, Friday Three firms are now interested in Taranaki ironsand, and are seeking facilities to exploit the industry. A shipment of five tons of sand is to be sent to England immediately for testing by the English proprietors of the Fuffield process, who hare asked the New Plymouth Harbour Board for a licence to take sand until the formation of the company and testa are completed. If the tests are satisfactory the company proposes to erect a plant immediatoh'. Besides Japanese interests, another English firm, with 'agents at Timaru, is moving in the matter, and informed the Harbour Board yesterday that the Minister of Marine, the Hon. P. Eraser, was prepared to grant a lease for the removal of sand not under the jurisdiction of the Harbour Board. It was intended primarily to utilise the sand for the manufacture of products other than iron and steel, although the manufacture of the latter commodities was also involved. The Harbour Board is obtaining Jegal advice to place itself on a sound footing in view of previous trouble through leases of the foreshore for oil industry operations.