Rich in Mercury

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 635, 11 April 1929, Page 8

Rich in Mercury

Company to Mine in Far North

A LARGE area of poor class land in tlie T'ar North is found to be rich in mercury deposit and an influential British financial concern is setting up a plant at hnge cost to tap the resources and commercialise the product. The coming to Northland of Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd., has a romantic as well as an enterprising flavour.

ItTERCURY occurs native in the crust of the earth and is usually scattered in fine globules through the body of a mercurial ore called cinnabar, or sulphide of mercury. Cinnabar is a red chalky substance, and its treatment is a process of scientific intricacy and of heavy expense. Its value to industry, medicine and general science is inestimable.

Previous attempts to exploit the mineral-bearing lands of North Auckland for this commodity have been hampered by a shortage of money,

but the English company which is now setting up its works has undertaken to test the potentialities of the area upon a scale hitherto undreamed of in New Zealand., On a remote promontory of hungrylooking land at Ngawha, about five miles from Ohaeawai and over two miles from the main road to Kaikohe, feverish endeavours are being made to establish the foundations for a huge plant before the winter rains set in. A community of nearly a dozen red wooden shacks, an up-to-date bungalow and a spacious messroom and cookhouse form the working centre for over 40 men who are making way for the installation of the costly machinery. Profiting to some extent by the unsuccessful operations of New Zealand Quicksilver Mines, Ltd., this English company, which is financed by the Brunner-Mond Nobel interests at Home, has purchased 800 acres of land, and holes have been bored all over it to locate the presence of the valuable ore.

Circumstance played a big part in the company’s interest in the Ngawha property. About the middle of last year Mr. R. H. Goodwin, a British mining engineer of world repute, was in New Zealand as an incidental to his Pacific search for minerals, and as he had discovered nothing in this country to interest his company, he had booked his passage on the Homebound ship. A few days prior to sailing, however, Mr. Goodwin met in Wellington a man who informed him of the failure of the northern quicksilver mines, and hinted at an attractive deal. Mr. Goodwin came North, tested the mineral lands, completed the purchase, and influenced his principals in setting up a plant for its exploitation. TO START IN SUMMER

The result of this stroke of fortune —whether good or ill doubtless is in the lap of the gods—is that the concern hopes to have its machinery working by the end of the current year, or possibly a little before that time if the weather is favourable for outside working. Business details of the company’s operations are kept a closely-guarded secret, and visitors are curtly ordered off the works. An idea of the immensity of the project, however, is gathered from the fact that anything up to £IOO,OOO has been spent already in the purchase of land, machinery and material, and in the employment of men. Much more money will be spent before the concern is ready to start operations. The land itself is understood to have cost between £30,000 and £40,000. When the works are in full swing about 100 men will be employed, many of them being highly-skilled scientists. EXPERT FROM AUSTRIA Mr. Goodwin has been assisted in his investigations by an eminent scientist, who was lent to the company by the Austrian Government, and who is still helping the project to fruition. The mine is reputed to be exceedingly rich, and productive of more than mercury. Cinnabar itself has a valuable use as a pigment, while scientists have suggested the possibility of commercialising .certain gas contents obtainable from the treatment of the clay. Whatever may be the ultimate intention of the Brunner-Mond Nobel people, the Ngawha works are to foe on a pretentious scale, and the residents of the districts —particularly the Maoris, who disposed of the land to the original quicksilver syndicate at a disconcertingly low figure—have not yet recovered from their surprise at the potential wealth which has lain untapped at their doors. A capital of something over £6,000,000 is behind this business—capital which the New Zealand representatives are using freely to prove whether or not the mercury fields of Auckland’s Far North can be commercialised.