MINING ENTERPRISE

Hokitika Guardian, 24 February 1930, Page 5

MINING ENTERPRISE

DEVELOPAI E'NTS AT SOUTH HOKITIKA.

RJAIU GOLD DREDGING COY. LTD

The contract for the .supplying of steel, fabrication, and erection ot the reconstr'intcd dredge for the Riinu Gold Dredging Company Limited has been awarded to The Hansford and Alii Is Construction Company oi Wellington. The contract involves between £30,00;) and £35,000. A further expenditure is involved in transferring machinery and improved equipment of another £IO,OOO. In the new construction there will lie used apj roximatedy 800 tons of structural steel and 100 tons of High Carbon steel castings. All structural steel will be supplied through John JOutliie and Company, of Wellington, representing Dorman Long and Company, and 1!. A. Skelton and Company of London. The plates and standard structural shapes will be supplied by Dorman Long and Company, with ail broad flanged I-beams ;from R. A. Skelton and Company. The pontoons, together with main superstructure members, will all be erected in the Contractors’ • Yards in Wellington. After erection, all parts will be marked, dismantled, and shipped to the dredge site, where they will be reassembled, rivetted and caulked. As soon as pontoons have Leon finished tney will be launched in a pond to be provided by the present, dredge where the superstructure and housing will be completed.

The operation>of the present dredge has been so arranged- that when the new drejlge has been launched the present dredge will enter the pond and be brought alongside of the new structure so that machinery and other parts may lie readily transferred. The new dredge will be of steel structure throughout, having an over-all length of 118 feet, with a breadth of 56 feet, and a depth of 11 feet, According to present calculations, the reconstructed dredge should be in operation by January of 1931.

Many parts of the machinery on the present dredge will be replaced with better and more substantial parts, several of the motors being materially increased in horse power. Jt is estimated that the re-constructed dredge will have an increased capacity of from 10 to 15 per cent, in excess of the present dredge. The new dredge wil require an additional 100 to 150 horse power of electrical energy, the supplying of which has necessitated the installation and erection of a new 1000 K.W. Rower plant by the Kanieri Electric Limited, the Power plant to be in operation at the time the dredge commences operations. This will involve an expenditure of a further £25,090, so that tne total expenditure in connection with this important mining enterprise will be in the region of £70.000.