Cinnabar Deposits

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 379, 13 June 1928, Page 8

Cinnabar Deposits

Investigation in the North

POWERFUL British mining and chemical interests are at present conducting an investigation into the possibilities of certain New Zealand mineral deposits. As a result it is possible that North Auckland may have a new industry, covering the exploitation of cinnabar deposits in and about Lake Omapere, near Ohaeawai.

UJINNABAR yields mercury, a product that increases in value as its application widens. To-day the curious, heavy element is an indispensible adjunct to industry, medicine and every-day community life. Existence of the cinnabar deposits of the north, with their tinted outcrops, samples of which formed a base for the war paint of old-time warriors,

has long been known. There is a pronounced quick-silver content or influence in the Ngawha springs, near Kaikohe, which are becoming known for their beneficial effects upon sufferers from certain stubborn skin diseases. At present the accommodation at the springs is primitive, but their fame is spreading to such a degree that inquiries have been directed through the Auckland branch of the Tourist Office. What the springs

are, they owe largely to the cinnabar deposits of the neighbourhood. Efforts to work the North Auckland cinnabar deposits have been made repeatedly over a number of years, but have not met with success. Satisfactory results were obtained by New Zealand Quick-silver Mines, Ltd., a company In which a considerable amount of Auckland capital was interested. This concern, whose mines and furnace were located at Puhi Puhi, 28 miles from Whangarei, had to the end of 1922 produced 16J tons of quicksilver, valued at £8,103, but it did not continue production. But the presence of the deposits, if

overlooked in New Zealand, had not been forgotten abroad. Recently an English mining engineer. Mr. R. H. Goodwin, who is associated with the important English chemical combine headed by the Brunner-Mond interests, I arrived in Auckland to investigate | these and other deposits, and as a | result it is possible that an effort may jbe made to exploit the cinnabar | known to exist in the bed of Lake | Omapere. ; Such work would involve the employment of a special type of plant, and though, as far as is known, no decision actually to start operations has so far been reached, Mr. Goodwin has gone as far as to inquire into labour and other costs. When approached on the subject he intimated that his principals had not vet determined to open operations in New Zealand. The very fact that a firm of such weight as the Brunner-Mond concern | is interested in New Zealand’s possi- ; bilities is, however, of interest and ! significance, particularly since it folj lows recent mergers and extensions ! which have brought to the concern, and its mighty offshoot. Imperial j Chemicals, Ltd., an international flavour and an accretion of capital from across the Atlantic. It is possible that the firm is coincidentally broadening the scope of its operations, and that this accounts for an intention to pursue development overseas. Lake Omapere, which may become the New Zealand headquarters for some of this enterprise, is a wide, placid sheet of water lying between I Hokianga and the Bay of Islands. Marked on early maps as Walker Lake, it is 790 feet above sea-level, and its formation is attributed by geologists to obstruction of the Waitangi River by an ancient lava flow. Renewal of interest in the North Auckland cinnabar deposits recalls other mineral lodes which have, like the cinnabar, been worked spasmodically and then abandoned. Chief of these, outside the gold and silver reefs of the Hauraki and Coromandel fields, are the copper deposits of Kawau and the Great Barrier Island. On Kawau was begun the historic enterprise of the Aberdine Mining Company, which mined large quantities of ore before various adverse factors compelled it to cease production. Manganese is another mineral known to exist in Auckland Province. Many years Manganese ore was mined in considerable quantities at Tikiora, Bay of Islands. At a later period operations were conducted, with some success, on Waiheke Island, where manganese in massive form may be traced for many miles. These resources were for a time worked profitably, manganese ore to the total value of £61,994 having been exported from the country, but fluctuating prices apparently prevented expansion of the industry.