TARANAKI IRONSAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 246, 16 November 1903, Page 2

TARANAKI IRONSAND.

Writing from Denstone College, Staffordshire, the Rev. J. 1,. Jlovo encloses the following- extract from th» Staffordshire Advertiser : —For many years past reports have been received

from time to time that mountains of ironsand, containing a very large percentage of rich iron, exist in several parts of our colonies, and particularly on the shores of St. Lawrence, in Canada, and at Taranaki, New Zealand. Experiments on a small fjc.ale have been with view of practically touting this, iron sand, but without any commerciar result. We learn this week oil the authority of a Manchester content porary that Messrs Cohen' and Rouse, gf that city, have invented a process of converting ironsand into ! iron at a very little cost. The sand, it is said, is fptin;d to contain 70 per cent, of pure iron." By the 1 new process the qjuartz run be extracted from the orp at a cost of Is per ton. The details of the pro- I cess have not at present been div- ' 1 ulged, but if the information given is anything like accurate the importance of the discovery to the iron trade of this country can hardly be overestimated. Compared with the iron ores usually imported the quality of this ironsand is very remarkable. The former often requires 24 , tons of smelting to produce one ton of iron, while the latter -is comparatively speaking pure ore. It is, of cours.e, too early to pronounce an opinion on this reported new method of treating 'jronsand, 'but the information of cpjUti'.mpoviiry has, every indication of bciiip authentic and should it be realised a saving, o! per ton in the production of pig iron would be the result. There is pro'bably no iron-producing district in the Kingdom where this now raw material would "oo more welcome than in South Staffordshire. Its once invaluable seams of iron stone ore are either exhausted or beini"' raised owing to the flooded state of the mines in many parts nf the district. The pig iron smellers are, therefore, dependent upon outside sources of supply. The northern part of tho country, Northamptonshire and Derbyshire, contribute the largest portion, and iron ores f'om the hills of Bilbao in Spain also'lind their 'way into the district. The rich ironsand from our colonies would be a wonderful help to the iron trad« of the Black Country, and we can only hope tjigt the information siippl ed to our ' usually well-in-formed contemporary is founded not i upon conjecture but' upOii actual