BIG MINING CONGRESS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 131, 24 August 1927, Page 9

BIG MINING CONGRESS

EXPERTS AT MONTREAL WIDE TOUR OF CANADA By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright Reed. 9.5 a.m. MONTREAL, Tues. Dr. S. Herman read a paper on the utilisation of brown coal in Victoria, his address being given at the concluding session of the second triennial Mining and Metallurgical Congress, which was attended by representatives from all over the world. The delegates have departed on a tour of Canada. Sir Robert Horne, M.P., the former British Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the course of his presidential address to the 400 delegates, urged Empire co-operation among metallurgists in order to make the Empire independent of all other countries in regard to metal production. The enormous hrown coal deposits in Australia might remedy one of the Empire’s defects, the lack of petrolfeum. PRAISE FOR AUSTRALIA Sir Robert paid a tribute to the Australian method of obtaining tin from alluvial deposits. He said this was an engineering achievement of which they might be proud. He could not envisage any slump In tin and said he thought the supply would continue to be less than the demand. Sir Thomas Holland, Rector of the Imperial College of Science and Technology, praised highly the Australian smelting innovation. RESOURCES O'F EMPIRE The Canadian Minister of Mines, Mr. Charles Stewart, reproached British mining men because of the relatively small investments of British capital in Canadian mining, as compared with American investments. He said these were respectively 14 per cent, and 36 per cent, of the £126,400,000 invested. The congress arranged for leading institutions to review the mineral resources and industries of the Empire, with the object of achieving a comprehensive tabulation of the mineral and industrial resources and to aid in discovering the economic possibilities in the Empire. It was proposed that each Dominion and each of the larger colonies should appoint committees of specialists to review for each unit concerned its mineral resources and its smelting capabilities.—A. and N.Z.