COPPER AND CHROMIUM.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVII, Issue 13685, 20 May 1912, Page 5

COPPER AND CHROMIUM.

POOR PROSPECTS IN DUN MOUNTAIN.

(By Telegraph.—Special to Herald.) WELLINGTON, May 18. Dun Mountain district. Nelson, known since the early days of New Zealand settlement as the homo of eopper ahd chromium ores, is the subject of a survey bulletin by the Government geological department,. The work was earned out by Dr, Macintosh Bell and Messrs E l)e Coureev Clarke and Patrick Marshall, and its main object was to discover the nature and extent of tho copuer deposits in the valley of the Hiding River and elsewhere, and also to carefully examine the mineral bolt of tho area for minerals of economic value and more cspocialh chrome ore. Of the latter the geologists report that it has been mined or prospected in no fewer than 10 places in the district, but the quantity was by no means great, and little apparently now remains. Copper occurs in at least fourteen places on tho slopes of Wooded Peak, near Dun Mountain. There have been many attempts to make a success of copper mining in the district, tho first company having been formed in London in 1880. One miue—the United—has boon worked intermittently for thirty vears, but its prospects are not regarded ns promising. An adjoining mine—the Champion—has better chances, but the quantity of copper .at prosent visible and developing amounts at best to only a low hundred tons. The report suggests that coal beds will be found in more or less isolated patches along the base of the Richmond Hills ami for a little distance out on to the Waimea Plain.