FORTY YEARS AGO

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3244, 26 March 1943, Page 7

FORTY YEARS AGO

MAGNIFICENT RETURN ORE FROM MARATOTO £57 PER TON FROM INCOGNITO (From the Ohinemuri Gazette of March 26, 1903) , We were recently informed that a ton of ore from the Incognito Claim' at Maratoto, Hikutaia, was forwarded to Australia for treatment, and that the net prbceeds thereof amounted to the magnificent return of £57. The mines at Waiomo and Waihi periodically send large parcels of concentrates to Australia for treatment, and we are creditably informed that there are large quantities of refractory ore of lower grade in other mines which could he profitably worked if there was an adequate plant erected at some easily approached and central spot within the .Hauraki Mining District, but as the case stands at present the cost of transit to the Australian reduction works is too great to allow a margin of .profit on the treatment of this class of ore, the result being that many mines remain unprofitable and only partially worked, when they could be converted into dividend paying concerns if the necessary appliances for treating their output existed within the mining district. There is an enormous* mass of mineral in view in some of the mines at Te Aroha, and it seems to be a crying shame that very little has hereto been done to utilise these lavish gifts of nature and cause them to become a source of national wealth.