STEEL PROJECT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22512, 1 September 1936, Page 14

STEEL PROJECT

WORKS AT ONAKAKA LARGE-SCALE PROPOSALS SURVEY OF COAL FIELD [by telegraph—OWN* correspondent] GREYMOUTH, Monday An 'aerial survey of tho Paparoa Ranges, particularly in the Mount Davy area, was carried out to-day on behalf of Pacific Steel, Limited, the £3,000,000 Knglish company which proposed to develop tho iron and steol industry at Onakaka. The reason for the company's activity in tliis district is that it proposes to draw the huge supplies of coal that will bo required for the Onakaka works from tho Paparoa field, and in furtherance of this idea, an option has already been taken over tho Paparoa Coal Company's property. Mr. A. C. Jamieson, surveyor for the Paparoa Coal Company, who is carrying out the preliminary work in this district for Pacific Steel, Limited, oxplained to-day that the basis of the idea to secure coal from Paparoa is a gigantic aerial conveyor from the ranges to Cobdon (a distance of about 10 miles) where a private wharf would be built. He agreed the idea generally would be looked upon as fantastic, but lie believed that with the great resources of the company and the topography of the land between the Paparoa coal lield and Cobdon, it was quite practicable, although it was an engineering undertaking dwarfing anything of the kind yet attempted in New Zealand. ( Paparoa coal, said Mr. Jamieson. was the only coal obtainable here that was high enough in fixed carbon for use in the iron and steel industry. That was why the Pacific Steel Company secured it. According to the company's plans, large quantities of coal will bo required for its works, creating employment for a large number of miners. The aeroplane used to-day was tho Blenheim Waco, and the members of tho surveying party were Messrs. Jamieson, Hope (English aerial conveying expert), H. S. Nightingale (surveyor), and Speight (Public Works engineer, Nelson). Tho capital ©f Pacific Steel, Limited, is understood to be fully subscribed. At the last meeting of the Greymouth Harbour Board application was received from the company for a site for bins to hold between 3000 and 4000 tons of coal. The chairman, Mr. P. J. McLean, then remarked that ho understood the project was still very much in tho air and depended largely upon conversations with the New Zealand Government.