Encourage New Mining Enterprise

Gold Ridge Discoveries

BSI Govt’s Practical Steps to Encourage New Mining Enterprise

Since the British Solomon Island Protectorate Government's cautious April 2 statement on gold discoveries at Gold Ridge, Guadalcanal, there have been further important and encouraging developments.

PERHAPS the most encouraging of these was an announcement on April 28, dealing with far-reach ing changes to the Protectorate’s Mining Laws. If important gold lodes have been discovered at Gold Ridge, Guadalcanal, and there is increasing evidence that this is the case, considerable overseas finance will be required to exploit the field.

That finance would almost certainly not have been readily forthcoming as the Mining laws stood on April 2.

Big Business has not forgotten the Theodore experiences of immediate post-war years. The Government, on the basis of its April 28 an nouncement, seems to be demon

strating in a practical way—the only way that counts —that it does not intend to perpetuate the errors of the past. The statement reads as follows: In order to encourage prospecting and mining in the Protectorate the Secretary of State for the Colonies has agreed to various amendments to the Mining Regu lation. The changes which have been agreed on are as follows: (i) The two sections of the Regulation, which at present emoower the Mining Board to require applicants for prospect ing licenses and mining leases to show proof that they have sufficient financial resources at their disposal to carry out their proposed operations, are to be re pealed. (ii) The Regulation is to be amended so as to ensure that a prospector who discovers minerals will have a secure title to his discovery, provided that clearly specified working conditions are fulfilled. (Hi) The Mining (Radio Active Minerals) Rules, 1948, are to be repealed and re placed by a provision requiring only that discoveries of radio-active substances be reported to the Government and an export license obtained.

In addition to these amendments im mediate consideration is to be given to the abolition of the present royalty scales and their replacement by lower scales.

Legislation to give effect to these various amendments is to be enacted in the im mediate future.

The part of it that will interest mining companies considering in vestment in the area is the an nouncement that the existing high royalty rates will be reduced. It re mains to be seen by how much, but it is considered probable that they will be on a sliding scale similar to that which has been found acceptable to mining companies in the African Colonies. But there is still the question of taxation of profits, the non-existence of which makes min ing in New Guinea attractive.

The other changes embodied in the announcement are of great in terest to prospectors and should have the effect of creating an in terest which has been lacking in the Solomons for years past. Under the 1940 Mining Regulation a prospector, usually a man with more hope than funds, was liable to lose his claim, if he could not show the Mining Board that he had the funds to work it. That provision is abolished.

Mr. J. C. Grover, Senior Geologist and head of the BSIP Geological

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Survey, still in Sydney on leavr May, made this comment: “The Mining Regulations are ; based on fair and just princij A prospector now has protect giving him indefeasible rights to coveries he may make in areas cc to prospecting, provided that; conforms to specified working o ditions, and does not sit on property and do nothing, thus \ venting others from doing so( thing.”

“In return,” said Mr. Grover, • Government has the right to i royalties and taxes as well as see that capital (the property) labour are not unduly idle. TH principles are in the interests of country and the individual.”

Mr. Grover said that the should now be clear for an crease in prospecting intere There are thousands of square rrn of mountainous hinterland qj unexplored by Europeans. Min companies may find this hard believe, said Mr. Grover, but it mains a fact that the search gold in the Solomons has been c fined so far to a relatively sn area, and there has never been . search for base metals.

Radio active minerals are i placed almost on the same basis other minerals, except that fii must be reported and export licen applied for. The latter measure merely to control the destination exports of such strategically va able minerals.

Mr. Grover emphasises, that the Solomons field is no pi for loafers. Prospectors must tough physically and stable me ally. Exploration involves dang ous and exacting work in the rr valleys. Because of the de: jungle and depth of soil on ridges one cannot see rock outen there. Men who long for the brit lights after a week or two in bush are not likely to succeed cause much depends on the hurr factor.

Mr. Grover said many mislead statements, by men lacking qualifications or the data to be their statements, had been made the Solomons in the past.

Work On Lodes

Encouraging*

COMMENTING on the ean Government statement of Gold Ridge discovery, Grover said that the April 2 : nouncement was fully supported! work which had been continue since then on two of the three loc mentioned. The third lode will J developed when equipment arri' for removal of the overburden. Ho: ever, it is now possible to say t!d development has shown all thi lodes to contain free gold. There little doubt that the discoveries

importance: the twenty years’ •ch for the 1 mother lodes is suc ifully concluded. It remains now develop and prove the area a e. he lodes are being opened up by isuna Syndicate which has the its to the area, but sampling, ,ys and statements to the public being handled by the BSIP eminent —additional proof that , administration now greatly de i to attract bona fide gold min interests to the Protectorate. ;spite every indication that this d be a gold discovery of some Drtance, Australian mining in -3t has not been aroused to the en t that one might have jined. At the beginning of May, ever, several companies were zing definite interest and were Iting the results of assays. More iral interest will probably be m when the statement of April ercolates through, le pre-war history of mining in ? —when many tried but none sed in finding the scarce lodes be Guadalcanal gold—plus the ilists’ best efforts to discourage mining after the war, is not y to be forgotten overnight. >ne are the gold-boom days of r ears ago when rumours were dent to float companies and i areas of Fiji and New Guinea pegged on nothing more en aging than wishful-thinking of the old prospectors of pre days are now raising beef b or growing coffee or cabbages. companies have r interests —oil, coal mining, er or other metals.

Nonetheless, if Gold Ridge proves to be the rich find that BSIP is waiting for, doubtless the means and the capital will be forthcoming to develop it.

An important goldfield could turn the Cinderella protectorate into a going concern for the first time in its history and this, as in other un developed countries, would have a profound effect.

Australian enterprise and capital would likely be very much involved; Australia would be the logical supply point for most of the goods and equipment needed there, which would bring the Protectorate even more into the Australian orbit than at present. Political changes could follow economic changes.

There would certainly be an effect on the whole labour supply posi tion in BSIP, which, since the war, has never been good. It has been suggested that mechanisation will obviate the necessity for much labour —but mechanisation of Fiji and New Guinea mines has not en tirely prevented a drain on native labour resources in those countries.

It has been suggested, also, that there is no reason why labour should not be imported from other Pacific Islands —New Guinea, for example. However, it is unlikely that P-NG, which is itself up against a labour shortage problem which is expected to grow worse in coming years, is likely to countenance that.

However, that problem is still in the future. In the coming months results of tests of the Gold Ridge lodes will be watched by everyone who has the welfare of the BSIP at heart.