MINING

Hokitika Guardian, 31 October 1930, Page 3

MINING

PRICE OF GOLD. The increase in the exchange rate on London will increase the value of tlie Australian gold production, the Commonwealth Bank having authorised the Mint some time ago to pay a premium on the official price of gold according to the premium at which funds in London are being bought. Allowing for costs incidental to the shipment of gold, which are deducted from the exenange premium, the present benefit to gold-producers is approximately 6 s 7d an ounce fine. The latest official price-of gold in London is 04 5s 11 id an ounce fine. A GOLD BONUS. The cable announced on Wednesday that the Acting Prime Minister of the Commonwealth had stated that the Government had decided that a bonus would be paid on gold produced in the Commonwealth. The various deputation that waited on the Fedeial Ministry asked for a bonus ot 2Us an ounce, but the amount decided on was not disclosed by the Federal Minister. The proposal has been discussed by different organisations in New Zealand interested in gold currency, anil in reference to a recent meeting in Dunedin the Sydney “Wild Oat Monthly’’ had the following comment:—“The : idea of a pomul-an-cunce bonus ,on gold production has had a <vqrv sympathetic reception , . in, OtnW' (Yew! Zealand),. Ai province - wlpeh'looks back with regret upon the! cla.ys . when its river beds were. rt.nved with'the yellow metal. Dunedmostly Scotch, and addicted to joo-ie accrue, however, that it is up t ;1 ” the Bank of England tn pay the bonus. They wbrk-it'out this way. “Tlie rate of increase in the world’s aold supply is 2 per cent, a 'year, whereas an increase of 3 per cent, is said by most economists to be necessary to keep '-prices stable. ’Hie Bank of England, whenever its gold reserve falls below 150 millions, puts up the bank rate, a procedure estimated by Air A. J. LiverngA to cost Britain TO millions to 35 millions a year, which averages a bigger premium than £1 an ounce on gold produced within the Empire would amount bo. As the Empire produces 70 per cent, of the world’s gold, other sources needn’t he worried about. “It ,is recalled that when the New Zealand gold, boom petered out, in the middle ’eighties, the average yield per ton on ore crushed was over, loz., whereas last! year the Juuneau mine, of Alaska, working with modern machinery, showed a good profit on stone that went onlv 4s lid to the ton though very high wages were paid. It is part of the Dunedin scheme that New Zealand should miT*ort any extra miners needed from the United Kingdom, admit British mining machinery duty-free, and make income-tax concessions on British capital invested in gold-mining ventures. “Senator McLachlan (South Australia), who first proposed the sold bonus in Australia, is still satisfied that it will have to be introduced. He holds to his scheme for the fissile of bonds in Australia to'nay for the gold (plus bonus).' the "gold itself being used to buy hack our loans in London!.”