C—2

In the Ohai field, both the Black Diamond Opencast and McLean's Opencast, situated in the State Star Coal-mine area, continued to make satisfactory progress. During the present year the original No. 1 area at McLean's has become exhausted, and attention has now been directed towards an adjoining section No. 5, and production will shortly be forthcoming from this latter section. An intensive search for potential opencast areas has been made and is continuing to be made in the Ohai field, and so far seven areas are in some process of investigation. There are indications that one of these may be a large tonnage proposition with a considerable thickness of overburden in places, and consequently detailed prospecting is required to determine whether opencast mining would be economic or otherwise. As a greater degree of geological knowledge becomes available and the structure of the field can be more accurately interpreted, it is becoming apparent that there are considerable possibilities in the Ohai field for opencast mining, and as time and opportunity permit, these will all be investigated.

The following table shows the output of coal from the various coalfields and the comparative increases and decreases for the years 1949 and 1948, together with approximate total production to date :

The outputs of the various classes of coal mined in each inspection district were :

11

Coalfield. Output. 1949. j 1948. Increase. Decrease. Approximate Total Output up to 31st December, 1949. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. North Auckland 56,485 50,804 5,681 6,713,609 Waikato (including Taranaki) 1,016,573 964,384 52,189 26,800,200 Nelson 7,123 6,854 269 779,778 Buller 466,452 527,593 61,141 31,040,839 Reefton 104,524 119,104 14,580 2,175,079 Grey 530,427 490,328 40,099 23,509,730 Canterbury 31,441 32,030 589 1,471,482 Otago 199,549 205,931 6,382 15,946,790 Southland 400,701 378,858 21,843 11,780,379 Totals 2,813,275 2,775,886 j 114,981 j 82,692 1 120,217,886

Class of Coal. Northern District (North Island). West Coast District (South Island). Southern District (South Island). Total. Total Output to 31st December, 1949. Anthracite Bituminous Sub-bituminous Lignite Totals for 1949 Totals for 1948 Tons. 1,073^058 Tons. 934,802 138,632 35,092 Tons. 1,885 366,218 263,588 Tons. 1,885 934,802 1,577,908 298,680 Tons. 20,562 63,273,177 49,197,697 7,726,450 1,073,058 1,108,526 631,691 2,813,275 120,217,886 1,015,188 1,143,879 616,819 2,775,886 117,404,611