Fire Areas in Coal Mines May be Worked

Grey River Argus, 17 November 1948, Page 8

Fire Areas in Coal Mines May be Worked

The reclamation of coal mine areas thought to have been burnt out, was now a possibility, said the manager of the open cast mine at Stockton (Mr A. Swainson) at the School ot Mines dinner in Westport on Saturday. Mr Swainson said that he had recently inspected an area at Stockton which had been worked underground 25 years ago but which had been affected by fire. It was found that the tire had evidently gone towards the surface, leaving a seam of almost 24 feet practically untouched. He felt that that experiment might have macle mining history in New Zealand as he did not know of any prior attempt to work such areas. If the same state of affairs existed at Millerton, where a big fire had been raging for some years, it might be possible to recover some valuable coal by open-cast methods. “As the only area tested so fur has upset the theory that fires have caused a total destruction of C °M where they cannot be harnessed, it seems that we might have got something at Stockton which could well spread to other areas in New Zealand,” he said. Mr Swainson has hopes that .by open-cast, methods it may be possible to recover thousands of tons of valuable bituminous coal at Denniston and Millerton. In some cases the mines- have been allowed to cave in and other open areas are now too dangerous to work by underground methods. WORK AT STOCKTON Detailing the work at Stockton, he said that it had started a week off four years ago and in that time 524,000 tons of coal had been produced. When it was realised that two and a-half tons of rock and other material had to be shifted to get a ton of coal, the immensity of the developments could be realised. Mr Swainson believed that there was no much difference in mining methods compared with those used 50 to 100 years ago, but there were some' places where! ' mechanisation could not be adopted. While machinery was available there was also a need for good men and he was fortunate to have them both at Stockton. He knew that with the aerial system of haulage, the “back room boys of the Mines Department” expected him to get out about 1500 tons a day and he would do his best to please them. Mr Swainson added that the Stockton workings had impressed an American engineer used to operating shovels capable of holding live times those of the Buller. In America it was evidently not uncommon to clear off 400 feet of overburden to get a seven feet seam of coal, whereas at Stockton 40,000 tons of coal could be produced from a couple of acres. SCHOOL OF MINES Dealing with the question of centralising classes of the School of Mines, the Director of the Westport Schoo] (Mr W. Pearson), said that the Mines Department had given its approval to the scheme. Next year, he said, practically all classes would be held at Westport, transport costs of students from the mining districts to be met by the Department. He considered the new arrangement as a step forward by the school and honed that other proposals, such as day classes for certain sections, and first and second classes v/ould come later.