GOLD MINING.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20329, 12 June 1934, Page 7

GOLD MINING.

Importance of the Industry

to Dominion,

INTERESTING INFORMATION

Some interesting information concerning the mining industry in the Dominion was given in an address to members of the Rotary Club to-day by Mr A. H. Kimbell, formerly Under-Secre-tary for Mines. Mr Kimbell stressed the great importance of the rrtining industry to the Dominion, and pointed out that up to the end of 1933 the value of the minerals exported from the Dominion totalled about £182,000,000. Of this total, gold and silver accounted for nearly £100,000,000. Gold, said Mr Kimbell, was the only export on which an export tax was payable in the Dominion. As a set-off against the tax of 12s 6d per ounce, however, the gold producers enjoyed a substantial premium, and a return of £7 os per ounce was obtained after paying tax and all other charges. For the year ended March 31, 1934, the gold export tax yielded slightly over £117,000, an amount that was very much greater than that obtained from some other taxes. The film hire tax. for example, yielded about £33,000. The effect of the premium on gold, he said, was to prolong the lives of a number of operating mines, as it made possible the profitable working of lowergrade ore and alluvial ground. “It is a great pleasure to me to know," he said, " that two of the strongest and most successful Australian tin companies have been and are still intensively, efficiently and reliably testing selected areas on the West Coast of the South Island. ’’ During the past few months one of these companies had sunk 450 bore holes, with most encouraging results. “If areas are adequately and efficiently tested by reliable men, and the results found to be satisfactory," he said, “ the industry will be placed on a sound and business-like basis, and will no longer be regarded as a gamble, but as a sound investment.”

As an illustration of the efficacy of systematic boring, Mr Kimbell mentioned that one area that had been properly bored had yielded results by dredging within .2d per cubic yard of the values disclosed by the boring. One result of the slump in dairy produce had been that farmers had been placing their freehold land at the disposal of mining companies for testing, and had been selling options at satisfactory prices. In many instances this had proved a godsend to the farmers. Mr Kimbell quoted the Waihi mine as an illustration of the value of the mining industry to the Dominion, and said doubted whether any other company in the Dominion had paid so much to the State in taxes. The goldmining industry of New Zealand, he said, should be encouraged to the full, and nothing should be done that would retard its expansion.