OVER-WORKED GOLD TAILINGS

Southland Times, Issue 23142, 8 March 1937, Page 8

OVER-WORKED GOLD TAILINGS

AID FOR PROSPECTORS IS MONEY WASTED (United Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, March 6. The definite opinion that much of the assistance now granted to gold prospectors working ground and tailings that have been worked three or four times by early diggers and since then have been worked two or three times by Chinamen, was a positive waste of money Was expressed by the Minister of Mines (the Hon. P. C. Webb) in an interview this morning. The Minister said he could not see any possible hope of developing any areas that way. “The easily won gold,” said the Minister, “has been won by the early experienced diggers and with all the expenditure of money through the Unemployment Board on prospecting in those areas not one mine has been discovered worth mentioning. Nevertheless a lot of useful information has been collected as a result of all the prospecting and a considerable amount of gold has been won, but we have now reached the stage when the latest scientific knowledge must be brought into play and the most modern machinery utilized in order to work lower deposits on a large and economic scale.”