PROSPECTING FOR GOLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21828, 15 December 1932, Page 10

PROSPECTING FOR GOLD

GEOPHYSICAL METHODS APPLICATION TO CENTRAL OTAGO (Special to Daily Times.) WELLINGTON, December 14. Important geophysical surveys are to be carried out in Otago by departmental experts with tbe object oi locating profitable gold deposits. As Minister in Charge of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Prime Minister (Mr G. W. Forbes) stated to-day that be bad directed that the efforts of tbe geological survey officers should be concentrated on a soil survey with a view to increased efficiency of fertilisers and on assistance to the Mints Department and Unemployment Board in regard to gold mining. Already the geological survey had made reports on many areas of interest to the Unemployment Board, but tbe work was now being intensified. Arising from the ordinary geological investigations, however, certain proposals had arisen calling for a trial of the new geophysical methods of prospecting to find whether these could be economically applied. The first proposal, Air Forbes said, had regard to the possibility of a very large area of auriferous conglomerate overlying a schist bottom in Central Otago. A bulletin was in preparation on the subject, and, if proved, the area would offer scope for mining operations on a large scale. The problem to be tackled by geophysical methods was to verify the general underground structure and if possible to locate payable areas. This problem was difficult, but certain instruments had been ordered and in co-operation with the Mines Department, members of the University staff in Dunedin, and a private specialist, a start would be made after Christmas to find out whether geophysical methods could be usefully applied, though results were not to oe expected in a hurry. Advice had been obtained from specialists abroad, and certain very delicate magnetic instruments to trace alluvial leads associated with black magnetic sand would be tried. The recent find of alluvial gold by Messrs Bell and Kilgour had been made in old covered-up stream bods, containing a considerable quantity of black sand, and the detecting of this type of sand by these new methods might be of assistance in tracing the gold. It was essential, added Mr Forbes, that every possible geological and technical assistance should be given in gold mining if it were to develop as a profitable industry, and the Mines Department was working hand in hand with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in the developments, while private enterprise was becoming alive to orderly methods of procedure in development, which, though slower, were surer in the long run.