NEW COALFIELDS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 68, Issue 5943, 15 May 1944, Page 3

NEW COALFIELDS

TWO LARGE DEPOSITS ONE NEAR OTOROHANGA Two new projects are under way for the exploitation of large coal deposits in the North Island, one field being 13 miles north of Ohura, Taranaki, and the other in the Otewa district, 12 miles to the east of Otorohanga. The Ohura deposit, to be operated by Wanganui contractors, is expected to produce from an outcrop a yield of 250,000 tons of coal, with a daily output greater than that from any open-cast working on the West Coast of the South Island. The Otewa deposit, also admirably suited for mining by the open-cast system, is estimated to have over 1,000,000 tons in the outcrop near the surface.

The Ohura deposit is surrounded and covered with heavy bush, with no clearing in sight. About 30 acres have to be cleared and eight to 12 feet of overburden, possibly up to 20 feet, removed by Works Department bulldozers, then the coal will be dug by steam shovel and carted 12 miles to railway trucks on a new* siding one mile and a quarter from Ohura. The contract has been let for excavation and carting, and the work is expected to begin in about six weeks. The coal, which closely resembles Waikato deposits, is part of a big area which extends under the hills and will probably be mined when opencast work is finished. About 15 to 30 feet deep, the seam is estimated to contain about 250,000 tons, about 90 per cent, of which will go to the Railways Department. It is expected to be put on the trucks at the rate of 200 tons a day. The contractors have secured eight new trucks—the first to be released in New Zealand. Settlers in the Otewa district have known of the deposit there for many years and have taken their ' fuel requirements from it. An expert who recently visited the locality and carried out boring explorations described the deposit as many times easier to work than the deposits found in the Huntly area. The coal is lying in Native-owned land and is easily accessible by a level road from the railway station at Otorohanga. A syndicate has been formed to exploit the find, and representatives have been made by it to the Otorohanga County Council to improve the road access and strengthen the bridges. The council expressed its willingness to do everything possible to assist the syndicate to open the I deposit and mine the coal.