Important Discovery.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 1489, 24 October 1885, Page 4

Important Discovery.

- A mineral discovery, which may provo a great importance to. this Colouy, was •announced at Wednesday's meeting ; ot the Wellington Philosophical Society. Three valuable metals, tin, nickel, and platinum, have been found associated m a workable shape m a bay on the West Coast of the ! South Island. ; At the meeting inquestion Dr Hector gave a short summary of a paper prepared by Mr W. Skey , "On a new mineral," being a oickeliferous alloy of iron, from the vicinity of Barn Bay, near Milford Sound, which! had been forwarded to the Laboratory by the Under-Secretary ifor ; Mineß. The percentage , of jiickel m the alloy itself itself- 67-6, while the sand, which is piesumed to be the residue obtained by washing the alluvial deposit, contained 24*77 per cent, of the alloy Thin sand also, coritainec a little platinum, and 32-14 per cent, of tin ore. Nickel some time ago was worth 12s per lb. The metal should, therefore; be prospected for m the range and its matrix found ; meanwhile, the tin ore should not be overlooked. In. all, pro-, bability the tin would -prove 'most valuable of this triplet of interesting minerals— nickel alloy platinum, and tin ore. . Some specimeuts of the. ailoy were shown and the . 'discovery was fe? garded as being a very important ,onei Dr Hector explained that the uickel ' was generally extracted from meteorites and, with the exception of a discovery made by 'Nprdeuskjcld, New Zealand was the r pnly' country m. -which Buch.<aV deposit had yet been found. , . „.!