Mining Tailings.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4382, 6 March 1909, Page 3

Mining Tailings.

AN “IMPOSSIBLE” SCHEME. Waihi, Thursday. The Minister for Mines (Hon. R. McKenzie) having expressed the opinion that the mining companies in Waihi will have to find some outlet for the tailings from the mines other than the Ohinemuri River, owing to the alledged damage done to agricultural lands about Paeroa by the deposit thereon of tailings! when the river overflows its banks, Mr H. P. Barry (superintendent of the Waihi Gold Mining Company) was waited upon re the matter to-day. In reply to iquestions, Mr Barry said the scheme suggested by the Minister is an absolute impossibility, and is quite unnecessary. The removal of the slimes by any other means than the Ohinemuri River would be an impossibility. All the sand vats were built on the lowest possible point on the ground, and the only means of emptying them was by sluicing them into the river. It was imposible to empty them by tiny other means, so that the present plant would be useless. The usual cost of handling and trucking, with the expenses of locomotives and rolling stock, would add such an immense cost to the treatment as to prohibit the mining of large quantities of low-grade ore now passed through the company’s mills. To cease mining these large blocks of low-grade ore would considerably reduce the number of men employed. A further objection to stacking the tailings is that they would'blow back into the town ship;