Report on mine maintenance, costs, equipment, employment, reserves, and workings.

Report on mine maintenance, costs, equipment, employment, reserves, and workings.

Notes on beach sand workings by company at September 1st, 1945.

Report on mine maintenance, costs, equipment, employment, reserves, and workings.

Report on mine maintenance, costs, equipment, employment, reserves, and workings.

In January 1949 a brief examination was made of the area bounded by the Port Moresby - Rouna Road, the Rigo Road and the coastline between Port Moresby and Bogora Inlet, with the object of determining whether supplies of water and raw materials for the manufacture of cement were available. Possible quarry sites were chosen and specimens of the likely raw clay materials, of the limestone at Boatless Inlet, of reef limestone and limestone from the Main Road (or "Nine Mile") Quarry collected. Fourteen of these specimens are being analysed for silica, alumina, lime, iron, magnesia, carbon dioxide and water and total alkalies. As the suitability of the various raw materials examined depends largely on their chemical composition, this report must be regarded as only a preliminary one until these results are received. In this report the availability of raw materials and the general geology of the area are discussed, and a description given of the deposits of raw materials examined in the course of the visit.

Attention was directed to the inadequacy of supplies of acid grade fluorspar in Australia when the Bureau of Mineral Resources was asked to sponsor an application to import a quantity from England in 1948. The British Ministry of Supply released a proportion of the amount required but advised that the supply position in England was not secure and only limited quantities could be released for export in the future. The Ministry suggested that if known Australian requirements were likely to be heavy, some material might be supplied as a matter of urgency. An investigation of the fluorspar industry in Australia was then undertaken to estimate future requirements and the extent to which these could be met from domestic sources; the results of this investigation are the subject of this report. The uses, grading, consumption, supply, prices, and projected future supplies of fluorspar are discussed.

These notes are compiled as a result of conversations with Government officials and mining engineers in Noumea on 4-6th July, 1951. Figures are given for the production, reserves, and exports of Nickel, Chromite, Manganese, Cobalt, Iron, and other miscellaneous minerals. Most of the figures quoted herein have been compiled from records collected by the Australian Consul.

Report on mine maintenance, costs, equipment, employment, and resources.

The object of this tour was to study ore deposits and methods of exploration in Africa and North America as well as to attend, as Official Delegate of the Commonwealth of Australia, the 19th International Geological Congress held at Algiers in September, 1952. A considerable amount of information was gained concerning ore deposits in the countries visited and this information should be of assistance in the search for further metal deposits in Australia. At the international Congress useful work was achieved and contact was made with a large number of geologists in various parts of the world. These contacts will facilitate the exchange of information between Australia and foreign geologists. The itinerary followed the attached as an Appendix to this report.