MINES REPORT.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 August 1923, Page 1

MINES REPORT.

WELLINGTON, August- L‘L The report of tli'o Now Zealand .dines Department presented to Parliament to-day bv tile Minister (tlie PI on. 0. ,T, Anderson) shows that the value of minerals, including kauri amn. exported and of the coal used in the Dominion, amounted to £ ; >-l 1 1 lOd, as eompitred with £-?.?>!O.-leif) during; l'.tpl. 'l'he total value of such minerals exported to the end ol 1922 amounted to £U9,B-M,2di. Tile bullion produced during the year iron! the quartz mines in the Dominion win le«s in quantity by :«i.0.j30z. than that produced. in 1921. though the value im leased by £909.1 . 'Hie yield from alluvial mining was less in quantity by ‘.'Sox. amt in value by £9178. The priKluetion of gold by dredging ~iirreasod markedly. the quantity ol gold obtained being more than double that of the previous year, while tlie value shows an increase ol approximately 80 per cent. "I hN satisfactory met Case is largely ailrihutahle to the. successful operation of the P.imu I-hit dredge, at. Ilium. near Hokitika. 'I lie results there obtained hy the use ol a. modern dredge give promise of leading to a very great extension ol grid dredging in Westland and elsewhere. The hrown coal and lignite mines ol .no Dominion are seriously liiimlicap.pod m their operations hy the difficulty experienced in marketing the small coal which results from screening for household, purposes. The eflect is that the small coal, .if disposed of. is sold at prices be-low the cost oi product ion, and this loss lias to he made up from the sale of the screened ena-l. thus increasing very seriously the cost to the consumer of household coal. This is a matter to which considerable attention tuts been paid during the year, wuh a view to investigating the possibilities of increasing the market lor small coal of low temperature. D carbon mat ion or briquetting were commercially practical, the present difficulty would he overcome. To ascertain definitely the possibilities, an investigation is being undertaken by the Domiiioii analyst, me necessary plant for conducting the tests having recently been procured front England by tlie -Mines Department. In addition two representative samples of coal from the Waikato and two front Otago and Southland n..vo been forwarded for tost purpn-es to Professor W. A. Done, of the Imperial College of Science, London, the recognised authority in the Empire on the low temperature carbonisation »l coal.