Big Copper Find Possible

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31005, 10 March 1966, Page 13

Big Copper Find Possible

(from Our Own Reporteri WELLINGTON, March 9. Coppermine Island and others in the Hen and Chicken group, off Whangarei, may clothe high-grade cop-per-bearing deposits on a scale not yet conceived in the search for base metal ores in New Zealand. Preliminary checks by geological survey experts have produced the possibility of a major copper find. So far it is only a possibility. But unofficial reports suggest that yet-unproved deposits could range from a minimum of 750,000 tons to as much as 30 million tons of high-grade ore. worth several hundred million pounds on present world prices. The Minister of Mines (Mr Shand) confirmed last night that there was a slight chance of Coppermine Island yielding “very' valuable deposits.” He would not discuss details of the interim report he has now received from Government geologists but said the likely maximum value of any copper lodes proved would probably be nearer £5O million than £5OO million. The latter figure is said to be based on the possibility of other islands in the group

proving as promising as Coppermine Island.

Geological Survey staff led by Mr B. N. Thompson, district geological officer at Auckland, recently submitted an interim report on their five-day surface survey, made with few instruments other than a geological hammer, early in February. They are believed to have sought authority to return to Coppermine Island for more extensive investigations, including the sinking of holes, and to widen their studies to adjoining islands. Mr Shand is understood to be awaiting further informa-

tion, mainly from an international assay of samples from Coppermine Island, before seeking a decision from the Cabinet on the next step. This may take several weeks and Mr Shand plans to make no official statement in the meantime.

Partly because of the threat to Zambian supplies caused by the Rhodesian crisis, copper in its prime form has Oeen fetching record prices of up to £560 a ton on the London metals market.

Possible values in the Coppermine Island case are said to have been based on a lower, more stable price of

nearer £4OO a ton and allowance has been made for variations in ore quality in differing estimates of the potential value of the find, put at a minimum of £1 million and a maximum of several hundred times that figure. The only copper ore mined in New Zealand recently has been in Northland, from the Copper Queen mine at Parakao, west of Whangarei, and the Hazelbrook mines, near Kaeo, both owned by Mariot Industries, Ltd. In 1964, 724 tons worth £6864 was extracted. It was used as a fertiliser additive and as an industrial precipitate.