DOMINION COAL

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 302, 10 September 1918, Page 9

DOMINION COAL

A PROBLEM OE THE FUTURE NEW SEAM AT POINT ELIZABETH ft* ! A telegram from' Greymouth publish»d. in I'as JUOMiMON tins week relerrofl ;o tlio.tUscoveix of a.new coal-bearing irea at I'mut Elizabeth. A big scam )t lirst-class,coal is believed to extend jver an area oj: 400. acres. It is easy if access, and oxperts ■ beliovo that ivhe.n a inino -is opened ,on tho block ;t will give something like twenty years' work. I'ho discovery is not a surprising a lie. but it is regarded by mining men is. being of very great ' importance, i'he.coal-bearini; areas of Now Zealand ire not as largo' as somo jwopie imagine tliom. to be. It is-true that coal ;jf different aualitios, varying from poor ligmto to linthraoite. is found in many parts-of tUe. Dominion, but the seams itppear rareiy to extend very far m any: direction. It was estimated ten years.ago Jiat tho probable normal in-, urease iir'oohsumption would exhaust the proved ,coal resources of New Zealand witliin : a hundred years, and tins prediction has been,. Quoted often ui support cf the demand for the develppnicnt of the Dominion s übiui-dfl-nt- ivatler-powoiv'- Mining experts hav© calculated that seams already tested will'produce, ..roughly, I,GOO,UUU,COO" tons oi' coal of ail grades, and that probably further developments will increase the quantity by over 2,000,000,000 tons. -If;all, the deposits of brown coal and lignite could be included in the calculation, the total might bo very , much higher. Hut a| present the commercial uses of these coals are small. The quantity of firstclass steam and household coat known to be available ill New- Zealand is relatively smalf, and it is this fact .that makes important the discovery of any additional seams. ;.• i The geological structure'of New.Zealand is very much broken, and for'this reason coal seams havo ■ a disconcert ing habit 'of thinning■ and .faulting/. The State. collieries 4a ve' imstances of this. Tho Seddonvillo State mine began -to produce in' 1903, and was closed'down in 191-1 owing to the exhaustion of marketable coal. liefore that time, much of the output had consisted "of. crushed coal' that:-could

not be. got" to'the- market ill .useful * b condition..- .It..was '.slmrtly .fcetore th 6. * closing of'tho Seddonville-miuo that. c the Liverpool" State colliery was. «er; t: veloped at Point Elizabctn, ynd a 1914 the life of'tliis new colliery was., greatly extended by the discovery of a. valuablo rieam of good bituminous coal covering an area of not less .than lay acres'.'• Tho : seam averages 17ft. in thickness,-and is believed to 'contain' not less thau 4,000,000 tons of/coal* , n ' -'Although the New Zealand'coal seams. t . are lirokeri and deceptive,- they ar?- fc often very .thick. But the variations , t in thickness aro;- extriwrdinaryj ancj ] g .iia.ve more than once upset; the calcuy j 'lations /of .experts. Therea*e■-in-,: o stances of seams 10ft. to 20ft. thick; thinning to lft. or 2ft. within a- feif. , hundred yards. It is an interesting. t geological problem how. these deposits ] b came .into existence. The following • ■ examples of thick seams are quoted «},; f official records:---In.fche, dis-.i , tn'ct (Auckland), 50ft. to _60ft. of browi | < coal ; in the • Bulfer-Mokihipui district (Nelson), 53ft. of bituminous coal; m , tlie r Iva'itaiigata district' (Otago), 30ft. , ! or more of brown coal; at Coal Creek, near-Roxburgh/ (^ntfal Otago,!Boft. ; ( o r, r according- to MDfcJd , lignite; : at-Nightcaps.(Southland), 3bft. < 'of brown coal in three bands. < Tlio development ..of . :tihe coal re T sources--of NeW"ZealaHd,in-:the. future , s . y ' < and systematic • prospgcting • pay in- - crease largely thf known areas of bitu- J "minous coal, lhere is probablj ve y . ■little anthracite coal to be found, but , certainty has not been reached i point-. ■On the other hand, the problem i of ' coal ■ suiiply''may" ho", solved. ;by the ■ improvement of .methods of usln ß the undoubtedly enormous supplies of brown , ftnd lignite, coal. • Ifc has been suggested that it may b.e| possible an the future ; 'to use tho great beds- of'brown coal for tho cheap-developmontjf'olectnc-it'v at the'mihe'sr mouth. -.This will be a '-problem for "scientific :st,tldy >n the future;' In the meantime auv extent sion of the bituminous' coal-bearing areas is a" matter of"importance' to';' the wliolo community. - .