NEW GUINEA GOLDFIELDS

Taranaki Daily News, 14 January 1931, Page 3

NEW GUINEA GOLDFIELDS

CONSIDERABLE INTEREST. EXPLORATION SPEEDED UP. Considerable interest is at present being taken in the development of New Guinea, and particularly in view of the fact that the country is rich in gold. Gold mining companies are already wellestablished there, and the following summary of the position of some of the companies operating, given in the Wild Cat monthly, is instructive. The chairman of New Guinea Goldfields, Ltd., Mr. Frank Hambridge, told the shareholders at the annual meeting last month (December) that the financial position of the company was excellent. The cash balance was £170,000, while Mining Trust, Ltd., was standing by to throw in another £336,000 as required, making cash resources well over half a million sterling. One-third of this should enable the company to begin profit earning with the initial milling plant now being designed to suit local conditions. The diamond drill had been put to work on" the reefing propositions and exploration speeded up. The drills should settle all doubts as to’the persistence of the ore bodies already located as they go down, and the existence of payable stone in the secondary enrichment levels. Soft ground was holding up the work until casing was available. There was still a lot of alluvial gravel available on the company’s leases, most of which was let on tribute. New alluvial had been discovered in considerable quantities, but so far values had not been sampled. Ore tests made in America indicated that a high recovery by orthodox methods was likely. The pilot plant was being designed to put through 100 tons of ore daily, and would, it was hoped, be running within 12 months after the placing of the orders for manufacture. It would set in on the Wau ore body, which had been sampled to go 110/ a ton, and is easily accessible. More like a page out of some romantic exploration, expedition than a plain,, sober business undertaking reads the news of an attempt to commence dredging operations in New Guinea. Of roads in the country there are practically rone, and most of the transport work has to be done by other means. The project is to transport all the necessary machinery to the headquarters of the Compaq by aeroplane. Preparations are being made in Sydney to ship to New Guinea the two dredges with which Bulolo Gold Dredg-

ing intends to work the Bulolo River flats. Specially built to permit of their carriage into the mountains by giant aeroplanes, the dredges are a fine testimony to the work of the makers. Nothing quite like this has yet been attempted in the history of gold mining, and the outcome will be watched with interest by mining men the world over.