NEW ZEALAND IRONSANDS.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1920, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND IRONSANDS.

INTERESTING VIEWS. Writing in Engineering, Mr. J. A. Heskitt says the iron ore deposits on the coasts of New Zealand originated from one or more upheavals, at sea, of molten oxides which, when in contact with the water, immediately granulated. The fact that throughout the soils of the interior a few grains can be collected, some far removed from the sea front, can be explained by their having been wind-blown, like the shell-rock deposits which abound at various parts. The composition of the ironsand will vary according to the locality, no two samples ever being identical although at various points of the coast, where the concentrating action of the heavy sea has thrown up, and so concentrated, the blue-black oxide, the analysis is fairly constant. Although readily accessible at various points, the deposits are by no means inexhaustible in the European or American sense, although they would go far to supply the demands of New Zealand. There is no doubt that at certain points of the coast there are places where the concentration is everlastingly throwing up iron oxide. Whether it would form a sufficient source of supply is a debatable point. It is often stated that the iron produced from iron-Band is sluggish and cannot be tapped from the i'uruace, or that only high carbon steel can be made from iron-sand, and that grey iron cannot be produced. These statements are based on experiments whereby only the same time for reduction of a soft hematite or limonite similar to Parapara was allowed for iron-sand. This has been the ruination of practically all attempts to utilise the iron-sands of New Zealand.