Vuda, Fiji

In Tahiti The

"In" Word Is

Nodule

Lay your hands on the nearest dic tionary and the chances are that it won’t say much about the word “nodule” other than “a little lump, knot or node”.

But go to Tahiti and you’ll find that “nodule” (or, at least, “nodules”) has recently acquired a more precise meaning, and that, to be brief, it means treasure —underwater treasure.

It is a word that could loom large in the economic future of French Polynesia—if a means is ever found of exploiting the vast deposits of nodules that apparently exist in the vicinity of the Tuamotu Archipelago.

Nodules, it seems, are pebbles, generally about the size and shape of turkeys’ eggs, but sometimes much larger, which are found on the ocean floor.

They are dark in colour and are composed of mineral salts—mangan ese, iron, aluminium, nickel, copper, cobalt and titanium (to put them in their order of importance). The salts are absolutely pure, which makes them of great interest to industrialists.

According to a recent article in the Papeete newspaper, Le Journal de Tahiti, the French vessel Coquille, which was in the Tuamotus in late December and early January, dis covered an abundance of nodules near those islands, using underwater cameras and a dredge at a depth of 3,000 metres.

The only trouble, Le Journal says, is that it would be necessary to mine about 4,000 tons of nodules a day to make the industry economic, and as yet the means of mining such things are virtually non-existent.

Furthermore, nodules are found in depths of from 1,000 to 6,000 metres, and at present “there is no question of going below 3,000 metres”.

“But,” Le Journal goes on, “all these problems will be resolved within five years, the specialists say. Satis factory results have already been obtained in the harvesting field. The Americans have a kind of giant aspirator which sucks the sea bed, and the Japanese have a dredge with multiple buckets which they tested successfully last year off the north and east coasts of Tahiti.”

Le Journal says that as the Tuamotus are not on a continental shelf, the nodules on the sea bed around them “belong to anyone who comes to get them”.

It believes, however, that anyone who does come—and only the Ame ricans and Japanese could do so —

would find it convenient to stock pile and treat their nodules on one of the islands of French Polynesia.

In which case, French Polynesia could enter a period of economic stabilisation, rather than recession, after the French nuclear testing pro gramme is completed in the next few years.

Oil refinery at

Vuda, Fiji

A $lO million oil refinery is to be established in Fiji by an American company, Global Refining and Ex ploration Co. Ltd., of Houston, Texas.

Official government approval has been given to the project; the first news of the huge refinery came in an official government statement in April.

The Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, commented that about 500 people would be employed during construction of the refinery, near Vuda, north west Viti Levu.

Between 80 and 100 people would be employed there when the factory was in operation.

The company is presently moving to acquire land at Vuda and the refinery is expected to be operating within two years of its acquisition.

Under its agreement with govern ment, the company is obliged to offer up to 20 per cent, of the equity capital to local investors and any

government-nominated institutions.

Crude oil will be brought to Fiji for refining. Products will include motor gasoline, kerosene, diesoline, industrial diesel oil, aviation turbine fuel, liquefied petroleum gas and asphalt. The plant will be capable of processing more than 7,500 barrels of crude oil a day.

Minister for Commerce, Industry and Co-operatives, Mr. Vijay R.

Singh, said the government would have access to all information relating to the purchasing price of crude oil and to the whole refinery operation.

The refinery would sell its products at prices no less favourable than the cost of imported products.

“We do not want the refinery to become a distributor as well,” the minister said. “They will be obliged to supply to the existing oil-dis tributing companies.” • The Tongan cabinet has agreed in principle to set up a company to breed bees for honey; Tongans would hold 52 per cent, of shares and New Zealanders 48 per cent. Only three members of the public turned up to a meeting to discuss the investment in April, but it was thought that more support would come later.