BIG NEW DREDGES NEARLY READY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22517, 27 September 1938, Page 6

BIG NEW DREDGES NEARLY READY

OPERATION ON WEST '

COAST

I'OWEK FROM COLERIDGE STATION

LFrom Our Own Reporter.J

KAIKOURA, September 26

With the completion soon of the transmission line .taking electric power from Lake Coleridge to the West Coast, big new gold dredges will begin operation on the West Coast. The Minister for Mines (the Hon. P. C. Webb), reviewing to-day the extension of gold dredging, said it was steadily approaching the stage where it might produce more gold than from mining. The Minister said the new dredges would cost more than £1.000,000, and if they did as well as the Rimu dredge had done, the gold output would be nearly 100,000 ounces per annum. With the rapid progress in the construction of dredging plant, low grade wash could now be successfully dredged to a considerable depth, the Minister said. For instance, the Rimu dredge in 1937 produced 13,000 ounces of gold, of value of £110,748 New Zealand currency. The value of gold recovered an acre was £3694. whereas the value of the land dredged was not five shillings an acre for other purposes, The amount of gold tax an acre was £220, and 45 men were constantly employed. The tailings left after the dredge covered the ground had been planted with pinus insignis, and quite a healthy forest would be grown on the waste tailings. In fact, the trees were growing better on the tailings than on virgin country adjacent to It. If tha other large dredges which were now under construction did as well as the Rimu, the total gold output would be nearly 10,000 ounces per annum, and would produce £62,500 in gold tax. Work for 40 Men Another important dredge was about to be constructed at Ikamatua. The capacity of this dredge would be 4.500.000 cubic yards per annum, and it would take about lo years to work out the area, which was just on 2000 acres. Approximately 40 men would bo employed, and wages paid would be just on £150,000. The total gold tax payable, if the present tax of 12s 6d an ounce remained, would be more than £IO.OOO. One condition of the licence issued was that trees be planted on the waste tailings left by the dredge. The cost of planting trees was greater than the present-day value of the land. However, it must be distinctly understood that the Government intended, wherever possible, to preserve good lands from being dredged up. To enable the dredging industry to be carried on power had to be provided, and the Government was butting a transmission line to the Coast from Lake Coleridge at a cost of about £IB,OOO, providing 15,000 kilowatts, and connecting the Coast with the rest of the hydro-electric schemes in the South Island. The transmission line was now woll under way, and before long would be made available for the operation of the new dredges. The Minister, discussing gold recovering activities generally, said that on assuming office it was his early, duty to endeavour to stimulate activity in the gold industry. He was conscious of the fact that there was too much wildcat speculation in raining, resulting in hundreds of people losing considerable quantities of money, without prospect of return. Therefore he insisted that the country be thoroughly prospected before prospeatuses were sent out. Experience had taught that where alluvial ground, such as dredging country, was thoroughly bored and tested, the investments could be looked on from a business point of view, and companies that had so prospected were getting returns in keeping with the prospects obtained.