Industry
p. 115 · Read in the full issue
Boost for Fiji Manganese Industry
From Our Own Correspondent SUVA, July 21.
MANGANESE mining on a con siderable scale is expected to commence on Viti Levu, Fiji, soon, following extensive explora tory work during June-July by a new organisation, Consolidated Manganese & Mining Syndicate of Fiji.
Since the war, Mr. J. P. Bayly and others have carried on small scale manganese mining, quantities exported rising from 70 tons in 1948 to over 36,000 tons last year.
The new company, with overseas finance, envisages shipments of 10,000 tons or more per month by direct ship when roads and load ing facilities are established in the area, on the north-west coast.
Government assistance has been promised in establishing these facilities.
The Syndicate is headed by Col.
A. Ottaway, an almost legendary figure of World War ll’s Burma campaign, whose extraordinary ex ploits figure largely in a recently published book. Prior to the war Col. Ottaway managed a number of tin and gold mines in Malaya employing 12,000 men and is an acknowledged world authority on mining.
He and others in Australia were interested in the present project by Mr. Shankar Fratap of Oceania Agencies, Suva, some months ago.
Col. Ottaway came to Fiji, was greatly impressed by what he saw, and despatched Mr. G. F. Hall, an other member of the syndicate, to carry out further prospecting.
With the assistance of Fijian chiefs and people in the area, large scale trenching was carried out dur ing July. Results were reported
highly satisfying.
The syndicate has now opened an office in Suva which will be man aged by Mr. Hall, who returned to Sydney by air late July to bring his wife and family to Suva.
It is understood that the mining will be entirely of an open-cut nature. With current prices rang ing from £l4-16 per ton, unrefined, lo.b. Fiji, the enterprise promises to be a valuable money earner for the Colony, especially as most, if not all, of the output will go to dollar destinations.
Eighty rare New Guinea birds that have been waiting at Nondugl, NG, for some time, were flown to Manus at the end of June and there they were picked up by American Air Force planes and flown to the US via Guam. The birds are the per sonal gift of Sir Edward Hallstrom to four American zoos. Each bird has its own private travelling cage.