VALUE OF TIME

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 35, 10 August 1936, Page 10

VALUE OF TIME

THE COST OF GOLD

MINE COMPANY'S CASE

THE WEEK AT WAIHI

The Arbitration Court today heard applications to amend industrial agreements connected with the working of the mines of the Martha Goldmining Co. (Waihi) and the mine of Golden Dawn Gold Mines, Ltd. The applicants were the workers employed by the companies. The workers asked for a 40-hour week of five days.

Mr. R. G. Milligan, local director and attorney, and Mr. ,H. W. Hopkins, superintendent, appeared for the Martha company; and Mr. M. H. Wynyard represented the Golden Dawn Company. Mr. J. Roberts represented the gold miners' union of Waihi; Mr. J. Read appeared for the Enginedrivers' Union.

In his statement opposing the application, Mr. Milligan said he had been local director of the Martha Goldmining Company for the past sixteen years. He was satisfied that the mine could not be efficiently worked unless the present weekly hours were maintained.

PHYSICAL IMPOSSIBILITIES,

The company, he said, employed more | than 600 men. Certain operations in connection with the mine were continuous and certain operations must be carried on on Saturdays. It wasi physically impossible to get out and transport the same tonnage of ore in five days per week as could be^got in 5i days, or to treat in a week of 120 hours (five days) the same tonnage as they were now treating in 132 hours. If an attempt were made to get the same tonnage as now by continuing to work as at present, but paying overtime for over 40 hours per week, the rise in production cost per ton would be about equal to that caused by reduced tonnage. Reduced tonnage meant a loss of gold output and higher production cost per ton. Higher cost per ton rendered the working of the lower-grade ore unpayable. ' The necessity for maintenance of the proper proportions between high and low grade ore—proportions which varied according to the cost per ton—involved' rejection of the lowest grades when the production cost was raised. Low grade ores, lost for either of these reasons, were lost lor ever. Forced rejection of lower grade ores must involve a curtailment of development work, and the loss of ore meant a shorter life for a mine that was moribund. There were special circumstances surrounding the industry at Waihi, and it would not be practicable to carry it on efficiently if the working hours were reduced to 4U per week. They asked, therefore, that the hours of work in the four existing industrial agreements be not reduced.

IMPRESSIVE TURNOVER. In the course of his statement. Mr. Milligan said that a big mine was a great spender of money, as was shown by the following figures of the cornpan Vs costs for last year:—Wages, salaries, and contracts. £472,716; rail-, way freight, £6046; olher fregt. stores, timber, and coal. f™- 534- electric power, £17,058; .gold duty, £43.91°, other expenses, £37,755; total, £307.010 (excluding income tax). Today, he said, the big tonnage \%as the life-blood of Waihi, and it was of supreme importance to the communities of Waihi and Waikino that tne company should maintain its scale of operations, for upon that, depended t-.ie stability of employment and in a great measure, the future of these two townships. It was claimed that machinery and science had revolutionised production. That was definitely not the case with reef mining, where machinery and science had done nothing to improve the technical or opeiattng efficiency of the industry during the past fifteen years. Labour wfs still by far the greatest single item of expense in reef mining. ro his company it represented 55 per cent, of their actual working costs. The increase in costs which would result from a 40-hour week would make a considerable quantity of Waihi ore unpayable. The company - had to deal with a situation involving a progressive deterioration in ore value and an increasing working cost. In 1928 the costs were 25s 3d per.ton; in 1930 they were 26s 8d per ton; and ir. 1935 they were 32s 3Jd per ton. The combined effect' of these- disabilities was that an ounce of gold was costing the company, under existing . conditions, 52 per cent, more than it did five years ago. The company could not stand up to a further increase in the cost per ton and still maintain the same organisation. Nearly one-tenth o£ all the gold the company produced was taken by the Government in the form of export duty, which cost them almost £44.000 in 1935, and represented nearly 4s on every- ton of ore treated. , , ' The elimination of half a day s work on each shift would mean a loss of 420 tons of ore a week. The company s tonnage would suffer a reduction of more than 20,000 tons in a year and the gold production would fall by several thousand ounces. The 20,000 tons a year-by which the tonnage would be reduced would be irretrievably lost; that ore could not be mined at a future date. The management, said Mr. Milligan, had given careful consideration to the question whether it would be feasible to fall in with the aim of the Legislature, and had come to the conclusion that'it would not.be practicable.

(Proceeding.)