SEARCH FOR GOLD

Taranaki Daily News, 9 June 1932, Page 6

SEARCH FOR GOLD

HUGE DREDGING AREA. MURCHISON VENTURE. Prospecting licenses of an area of 4000 acres of potential dredging ground extending for 16 miles along the upper reaches of the Matakitaki River, near Murchison, were granted recently to a group of Wellington, Auckland and Hamilton businessmen, says the Dominion. As a result of its investigations the group has formulated a policy for the development of the area which, if exploited, will be the largest gold-dredging field in New Zealand or Australia, and almost exactly twice as large as the well-known Bulolo field in New Guinea. The area is sufficient to carry four large modern dredges, electrically driven from a special hydro plant for which ample water is available. The project is rousing interest in the district, where the Matakitaki is known as “the golden river.”

New Zealand has been called “the cradle of dredging,” but most of the development work has been carried out in America and the East. Dredging costs have been lowered as the result of the improvements in design and the enormous increase in the output of the dredges now used. In many cases the total cost of operating the modern dredge is as low as 2-Jd. for each cubic yard of gravel treated.

If efficient methods of testing are adopted, it is possible to estimate within a few pounds the value of the gold contained in an area, and how much it will cost to recover it. A scheme of this magnitude would require more capital than could be conveniently and economically raised within the Dominion. The investment in New Zealand of hundreds of thousands of overseas capital is particularly desirable at the present time, and the country would make a strong bid to recover its former place as a gold producer should the field be developed.