Rock Drilled At Power House Site

Press, Volume C, Issue 29513, 15 May 1961, Page 12

Rock Drilled At Power House Site

(Neu) Zealand Press Association)

INVERCARGILL, May 14.

The first rock has been drilled in the exploratory work in the area proposed for an underground power house at the west arm of Lake Manapouri. The biggest section of the work—a 750 foot vertical pilot shaft—was reported to be due to begin at 11 o’clock tonight. Thiess Bros., Pty., Ltd., which has the contract of about £150,000 for the shaft, plans to work three shifts daily on the job.

It is reported that the Shaft will now be 14ft Bin in diameter. About 26 men will be working on it. They use jack hammers to drill a pattern of holes, which are packed with dynamite and fired with split second timing, so the rock after breaking tends to be thrown up. Much work, particularly clearing, had to be done on the ridge before work could begin on the shaft. Electricity has been taken to the shaft site and a shaft head frame, 40ft high, is ready for erection when needed. An incline tramway of 3ft gauge has been built to transport gear. Nearby, the Gore Drilling Company has an aerial ropeway from the lake edge up to the site of its 800 ft deep core bore, on which drilling began on Friday.

The company has drilled about lift and is now waiting for a water tester, which will be used at intervals during the drilling. It expects to resume work today Six men will work on the core bore and it L- hoped to drill an average of 130 ft a day in t-wo shifts, each of 12 hours.