WEALTH IN ANTARCTICA

Hokitika Guardian, 11 October 1929, Page 5

WEALTH IN ANTARCTICA

“The mineral wealth of the Antarctic is incalculable. Gold, silver, lead, molybdenium, and other metals exist there, while knowledge of an immense coalfield was confirmed by Mawson’s last expedition in 1914. It has now been proved that the coal area is 1200 miles in length and about 100 miles in width. Those are the known limits; it may be wider still. There are at least seven seams, and an analysis of a sample brought back by Shackleton showed it to be of fair quality. Mining in the Antarctic would, of course, offer problems of its own, but we have to •emem'ber that metalliferous ores are worked in Alaska. When the United States bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for 7,500,000 dollars, Britain showed little interest, and many thought there was nothing in Alaska worfli the money. Since then, however, America’s investment has produced £860,000,000 in gold, or more than the National Debt of Great Britain at the time of the purchase. It is no dream, this wealth from the icelands of the South. Here, almost at the doors of our Dominions are mighty seas and boundless lands with unguessed possibilities. That we are alive to tne potentialities of this great territory is shown by Mawson’s present expedition.” —Captain Mills Joyce a member of the lal4-17 Ross Sea Expedition. ___