IRON ORE FIELD.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1408, 8 April 1912, Page 4

IRON ORE FIELD.

<. MOVEMENT TO DEVELOP IT. [By Telesraph—l'rcßS Association.) Hastings, April ". A movement is well forward to establish jirou smelting works to develop the iron field known as the Onakaka Block, alongside the famous J'arapara field. The Onakaka deposits have been reported on by Professor Marshall, whose analysis disclosed iron ore of first-class quality, capable of yielding pig iron of the highest grade. T'ho block comprises nine hundred acres, and is stated to bo practically a mass of iron including faces of solid iron two hundred feet thick. Ninety acres have been cleared of bush, and on this Professor Marshall estimates that there -are twenty-two million five hundred thousand tons o*f iron in sight. The quantity of ore on the nine hundred acres therefore would bo enormous. Tho Onakaka Block is in no war associated with Parapara, which has boon the subject of speculation for tho iast thirty years It is intended t>i erect blast furnaces for smelting the pig iron, and leaving to others the manufacture of the steel. Tho property is situated on a coast whero the largest* shir, can lie close in, and the elevation of the mine will allow ordinary quarrying and transport by gravitation to the furnaces and wharves. Coal and lime arc also found in closa proximity. Tho cnpltnl of the company will be .£200,000. Although the prospectus is not out of tho printer's hand, a large number of shaics have already been subscribed in Ilawkc's Bay, ami only another twenty-five thousand £1 shares need to be subscribed to securo registration. The, cost of erecting blast furnaces is set down at from X 75.000 to JiSO.OOO.