IMPORTANT MINING PROPOSITION.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15873, 12 April 1917, Page 4

IMPORTANT MINING PROPOSITION.

HUGE FIELD OF MOLYBDENUM. (FROM OT Il OWN CORUKSrOXDENT.) SYDXKV. Anri! 1. A company, registered in New Zealand, wiui a capital el lia;undertaken a very important and interesting mining proposition at Yetholme, near Bathurst. There is there a huge field of low-grado molybdenum ore, and the company has acquired three properties carrying this ore, which have been amalgamated in one under the namo of the Mammoth Molybdenite Mines. They comprise an area of 327 acres. Molybdenite lias great value in the production of high-grade steel. The metal is rare, but already the Australian deposits, quite inadequately worked, have provided an output greater than that from any other part of the world. Up to the present, the principal yield has come from Queensland, but the new Yetholme mine is expected to rival this output. Before the war, Germany was quietly but thoroughly buying tip all the loose molybdenum in Australia. Jt was done in that peculiar German way which disarmed criticism. AVe were told that the.metal was icquired for the purpose of giving a beautiful blue colour to porcelain, for which purpose it is adapts ed. But in the same manner that the Australian grass tree gum was purchased by the Germans for its high explosive contents, and not for harmless varnish preparations. as was said, molybdenum was being obtained for i-tecl-making at Krupp's great factories, where the monstrous cannon which gave the enemy his first great advantage wore made. The proposition may be a big gamble, says one critic, but those who .lave taken it up have their confidence hocked by scientific data and prospecting work which has been carried out over the whole of the area. Some 11-V3 !> ot of drilling has been done, and on every part of the property the deposit has been tapped. The percentage of the ore varies. It averages i.7 per cent.' of molybdenite, valued at £7 f's Id l er ton, or an 83 per cent, reeoverv. These figures do not appear high, b;ii \akon in conjunction with the natur'o of the property, which, it is claitncd. will he very easily worked, there is good ground for confidence. A start will be made with a ball i;:il]. treating 40 tons of ore per da v. Later, it is intended to treat 1000" ton* tit r day. yielding £42,000 per and employing a large number rif ?r,en. F.vcn at that rate, the mine is estimated to have 40 vears of lite.