A VALUABLE DISCOVERY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12734, 1 April 1909, Page 4

A VALUABLE DISCOVERY.

A discovery which mhy prove of immense importance to Western Australia has been made within a few miles of the coast about halt-way between Frcmantle and Geraldton, at. a locality known as Namban Creek. Here Mr S. Goeczel, geologist, has found what appears likely to be a very valuable deposit of phosphates. The importance of phosphates and superphosphates for fertilising the soil is well known to agriculturists, and Mr Goeczel's discovery is said to promise an inexhaustible supply of this product, at a price at least 50 per cent, lower than the farmer has hitherto been paying for it. Last year about 16,000 tons of fertilisers were imported into the Western State, without including guano from the Abrolhos and locally-prepared bonedust. It is estimated that something like 200,000 tons will be required at a comparatively early date, if satisfactory progress is to be made with agriculture. Australasia's principal supplies of superphosphates are obtained from the rock phosphates taken from Ocean Island, in the Gilbert Group, and from Christmas Island, south of Sumatra. The rock phosphate is treated in Japan, in Europe, and some of it in Australia. The Japanese can manufacture and transport so cheaply that they are likely to control the Ocean Island phosphate market, which is giving some uneasiness to Australian manufacturers. Last June, phosphatic deposits were found on the Moore River, which led Mr Goeczel tobelieve that similar supplies would be found further north. He was commissioned by the Department of Agriculture to- make investigations, and, following up the limestone hill formations and making many important finds, he reached Namban Creek some three months ago, and there started the work of exploration and development. There is now in sight in three caves about 10,000 tons of high-grade phosphates awaiting bagging and transport to Fremantle. It is known that in and around Namban Creek there are from 30 to 40 caves, most of which contain large Quantities of phosphates, while for a distance of from 130 to 150 miles adjoining the seaboard there are similar deposits in the large caves not yet thoroughly opened up. On the strength of Mr Goeczel's renort, the Minister of Agriculture visited the district, and is confident that beneath the organic phosphates which cover the floors of the caves arp thousands of tons of rock phosphates, caused by the percolating waters carrying the nhosphoric acid in the deposits on to the limestone beds, and phosphatising the limestone. In addition, therefore, to the thousands upon thousands of tonß of phosphatic deposits available without treatment, it is probable that there is a similar quantity of rock phosphates in the same locality. Each group of caves is supposed to be connected by, underground channels, and many fragments o f fossils are found in the caves. They include petrified portions of tree trunks and bonQS of amphibians. i