W Lease Of Life Indicated

[?]ernment Co-operation [?]s Dividends

For Fiji's Cold Industry

An extraordinary new lease of life is promised for the Fiji ridmine industry, as the result of co-operation between the iovemment and the goldmining interests . . . that goes back ► 1952.

IEN all the excitement over Jill Borthwick’s discovery of ich telluride ore in the early ties had subsided, the Mel le group (Theodore, Wren, etc.) id down with the phenomenally Emperor mine. The gold was jar the surface that much of is recovered by open-cut; but s in a very limited area, ore Emperor was finished, the ly rich Loloma, alongside, was rered; and then, as both ror and Loloma began to fade , the members of the same i discovered and developed the wnenally rich Dolphin lode, a lundred yards away, i luck still held. Just when all ; at Vatukoula were getting to the Dolphin returns, some

one discovered that there were equally rich gold-bearing strata, underneath Emperor.

There had been dismay in the Fiji Treasury, when it seemed that Emperor, Loloma and Dolphin would, like all good gold-bearers, gradually fold up and fade away; so the Gov ernment listened with interest to the arguments of the goldmines proprietors.

“We think we might extend this industry indefinitely,” said the engineers and managers. “We think that there is much gold at the deeper levels. But we cannot be sure without a survey that will be ex pensive; and, if the gold really is there, we cannot get it without very costly deep mining.”

Fiji—fortunately for Fiji—is by

racial necessity a kind of benevolent autocracy. There is no “democratic Parliament.” The Governor can

make important decisions without awaiting almost endless and usually purposeless debate by the people s

representatives.”

The Governor decided in 1952 to make substantial tax concessions to the mine-owners on condition that the latter spent at least £200,000 on that survey; and there was no Parliament in which the elected could stand around and howl about these “gifts to the greedy capitalists.”

The result was that the mine owners, between 1952 and 1956 spent, on their geological investigation, not £200,000, but nearer £750,000; and they now have reported to the Governor that “the information about ore bodies at the deeper levels is sufficiently encouraging to justify capital investment on a large scale.”

Therefore, they have prepared a 5years-programme of capital ex penditure on the mine.

The mine-owners (Associated Gold Mining Companies—a consolidation of the Melbourne, or Theodore- Wren group) say that that pro gramme will cost £930,000, of which £750,000 will have to be found as new capital. They appear to have left the rest of the problem (en couragement of new capital from overseas) in the lap of the Govern ment.

THE Governor told his Legislative Council, on April 26, that the choice before them was plain and simple: they must assist the

mine-owners in developing a prob ably large and rich gold industry at the deep-levels, and so provide a future for the 5,000 people now living at Vatukoula; or “face the social and economic dislocation in volved in the closing down of the industry.” He pointed out that the industry spends annually on wages and salary more than £500,000, “the

greater part of which remain: Fiji.”

His Excellency thereupon mitted proposals for exemptioc the Companies from income ta» gold royalty for a period of: years; and, in the circumsts. as set out, there is little doubt, the plans will be approved b$ Council.

Tie Governor’s statement has ned up a new horizon for the [ goldmining industry which, up the end of 1955, had produced iut £10,000,000 worth of gold, he announcement will add con irably to the stability of the ony’s economy. With promise of rofitable future for sugar, gold, ra and bananas (in their order importance) the average owner capital need not worry much ut his investment in Fiji. [E development may again direct ; attention to the probable geological fact that there is e accessible gold in Fiji than yet been discovered and surveyed, le two big islands have been searched over for alluvial gold; I as is well known, some quite Itable leases were worked in the awai area before World War 11. it the Tavua gold, in the hern part of Viti Levu, is not rial, and it was extraordinary that it ever was found by the lary type of gold prospector, le industry still is confined to a et-handkerchief area, leased by Melbourne group; but even the perienced eye can see that the j type of country extends for last a hundred miles along the lern coast of Viti Levu. This ars to be all heavily mineralised, it is hereabouts that all those ing finds of manganese have made. >ny skilled people have searched, ourse, but nothing indicating of this “telluride” gold has found in payable quantities here outside the Vatukoula y. Yet it is a safe bet that there ire of it in Northern Viti Levu ybe at those intriguing “deep i” —and the concessions now led by the Government of Fiji induce outside interests with *1 to go in and search for it.