Bulolo's No. 5 Dredge Delayed

By Strike

effect of the Pacific coast mari time strike in America has been a delay in the completion of Bulolo Gold Dredging Ltd.’s No. 5 dredge. This is the first of the two deep-digging dredges designed to reach the rich lower levels discovered under the present dredging area, in New Guinea.

Instead of being shipped from San Francisco, the bulk of the parts for the new dredge were sent to Vancourver and put on the motor vessel Noumea, due in New Guinea about the middle of March.

Other material, sent from New York, will travel via the Panama Canal and

Sydney.

Originally, it had been expected that this huge dredge would be operating by the end of July. Now, it is hoped that it will be assembled by about the begin ning of September. As with the com pany’s other four dredges, the parts are being freighted in to Bulolo by Guinea Airways from their headquarters at Lae.

No. 5 dredge will dig to a depth of 80ft. below water level and will carry a bank of 40ft., giving a total digging depth of 120 ft. It was so designed that the largest piece (the tumbler shaft) to be carried in by air would not weigh more than 3J tons. The completed dredge will weigh 1,500 tens.