RESULTS OF TESTS ON IRON SAND AT ONEKAKA SUCCESSFUL

Wanganui Chronicle, 20 July 1950, Page 8

RESULTS OF TESTS ON IRON SAND AT ONEKAKA SUCCESSFUL

NELSON, Last Night (PA).—Replying to a request by the Nelson-MaHborough-West Coast League of Local Bodies for information about the smelting tests carried out at Onekaka last year, the Minister of Industries and Commerce states that the Government has received a report from the consultants in charge of the tests. Experiments, explains the Minister, were conducted with beach sands alone, no Onekaka ore being used, as it is in connection with sands that technical problems arise. Ores of the type of Onekaka present no real problem from a technical angle, whether they are used in a blast or electric furnace. For the experiments, the iron particles of sand were separated and then sintered with a small percentage of char from Huntly. By this process, the iron particles were welded together to form a coke-like product which, in the furnace, would allow the flow of ! gasses—sand in its fine form would tend to choke the furnace and become dangerous. Various mixtures and percentages of fluxing materials were used and tried with a varying electrical charge. All the data had been tabulated. The experiments had shown that ironsands can be smelted quite successfully in an electric furnace. The problem of further development, however, must await the availability of adequate electric power supplies and the assessment of the economics at that time, concluded the Minister’s letter.