Document n9NOn0RkMwqBRxrYpNdz97OZR

f //t s . VS3T AUSTRALIAN BLUB ASBTS9TOS FIBRH COMPANY * v This report la written in response to 'wired instructions of September 21st, as the result of wMcb Z travelled by car to Muliewa and Joined the north bound plane on the morning of the 27th. Ur. BLockley of the Treasury met me at the plane according to arrangement, and supplied what explanations were necessary but could not have been conveyed by your wire* He hae also made available for my assistance Mines Department file No. 353^45 * covering the matter of the Government's guarantee of a bank over-dj*aft of 25*000 on behalf of the Vest Australian Blue Asbestos Kbre Company. Our Joint mission is to report on the past, present and future operations of the Company from our own particular' aspect, for which purpose we have made a mutual exchange of Inform ation. The ensuing remarks are made from the point of view of a mine operator and any figures supplied by Ur. BLockley and here quoted will be specifically aeknoid.edged at the time. Otherfigures dealing with various costs will be used, and it is to be understood that these are close approximations only, and are used mainly for comparative purposes. ' Before continuing with the report, a brief outline of develop ments over'the past 6$ years may help to dispel any oonfusion which could arise in the mind of anyone not familiar with the asbestos industry in this State,. due to the similarity in names of the two major operating Oompanles. ' In the early part of 1939* Mr. I. Valters operated a small plant In Yampire Gorge on behalf of an English Company - Asbestos, Molybdenum and Tungsten Ltd. The fibre production was spasmodic and was shipped from ft>ebourne to Singapore* and thence transhipped to London. After several periods of Idleness, apparently caused by the war, De Bernal es interests bought the undertaking, and the operating Company is now known as Vest Australian Blue Asbestos PibreeLtd., which is controlled through Australian Mines Manage. ' ment and Secretariat Ltd*, and Is now under the direct .management of Mr. S. E. Stubbs. The same interests- aLeo are holding leases w at Marra Mamba, about 50 Biles to *be Vest, and at Marlllana, some 50 miles to the East of the Yamplre Gorge Leases. (These latter two holdings are not being actively worked.) At about the time that Valters was In operation, L. G. Hancock, of Kulga Downs-Station, held leases in Vlttenoom' Gorge some 15 miles Vast of. Yamplre Gorge,- and ereoted on them a small home-made plant which gave surprisingly good results. .' He finally succeeded in attracting, the interest of Colonial Sugar Hefinery, who' ixw hold the controlling interest in Hancock's leasee, and operate them under the title of Australian Blue Asbestos Ltd. with Mr. Hancock as Superintendent. After selling out In Yamplre Gorge, Valters moved to Vittenoom's Gorge and pegged some leasee adjoining.Hancocks, but these were also acquired by Vest Australian BLue Asbestos Fibres Ltd. and are now being worked in a small way. * The fibre from them is carted 35 miles and milled in the Yamplre Gorge plant. Geological Survey Bulletin So. 100 should be read In con junction with this report. ,,' The Government is asked for further assistance by the .Company, to establish the asbestos industry, and before this can be'con sidered, the security for the previous guarantee muet be-examii and this will be attempted immediately. Mr. BLockley has givei me a copy of jin "Inventory -of Machinery, Plant and Buil-di-ngw -er ..Yamplre Gorge 1st August, 1945" which has apparently been pdi . by the Oompany in support of the application for increased aS4 SB* 1W.MW - 2- "7 "'similar inventory was prepared at the time of the original request for the guarantee of . the bank overdraft of 25*000 and it covers the same items* though the later inventory includes material brought to the leases since the earlier one was made up. A comparison of the two lists produces results which would seem to be a trifle irregular. On one occasion, a price shown for an article on the later list, is more than doubled on the earlier list* In very few cases do the figures agree, and there is no systematic disagreement which could be accounted for by a depreciation factor or similar allowance. Za fact for eooe -articlea the price on the later list is often much higher than on the earlier. Some items have been shown twice* others which are on the ground, are not shown at all, while yet others wit eh are shown on the list have not yet arrived. Ur. Stubbs Informs me that the items were, listed at the mine for the most part,' but the prices were added in Perth* Ur. Hockley will cover this aspect in greater detail and in the meantime it has been decided that I attempt to assess the break-up value of the plant. In view of the lax methods of compiling the inventory, this assess ment will have to be based largely on my own experience, and the items on the list as supplied will have to be dealt with more or leas Individually. The valuation of a mine plant is always a difficult proeees, but a few obvious principles can be used as a guide. Firstly, even a poor-plant may have'a high value if. it- can be kept operating on a good mine, while the'same plant can he almost valueless if the pay ore in the mine cuts out* This means in simple terms that there ie a great deal of dlfferenoe between the operating value and break-up value of any plant, and the difference varies accord ing to the condition of the machinery. Isolation postulates a * big decrease in the resale value and is particularly applicable in the present case. If the present plant were put up for sale, ' Australian Hue Asbestos, the Colonial Sugar Refinery Company's undertaking in Wlttenoom.'a Gorge,. is the only prospective buyer in a position to offer reasonable-prices for-any item that Ihey- xequire, for the reason that they would need to freight it only 35 miles.' Outside buyers would probably have to pay freight on . their purchases up to 1,000 miles or more, and consequently would be offering very low prices. Some units always have a comparatively high re-sale value, while for others it is often impossible to get a buyer. For instance Diesel power unite and electrical equip- 1 ment come into the former daee, while outmoded machinery, and the * etceteras such as special chutes,, covers, etc*, which are par t of every plant and which coat a lot to erect, fall into the latter class. In particular the treatment plant would have a low resale value for a variety of reasons* Firstly, o large part of it could only be used in another asbestos plant, and C.S.B. is the only other operator in the business at the moment* Their plant ie far superior.to this one and they would not be offering high prices for poor equipment* Secondly, the machines have suffered a great deal of wear owing to the hardneea of the gangue jaaterlal, and bearings axe probably badly worn through operating in a dusty atmosphere. These conditions have been aggravated by the facts that, the milling is done on contract, and' that pressure for pro duction has'cut maintenance to the dead minimum. The,contractors are always in a hurry to get the plant in operation eo that even lubrication is neglected* The cessation of hostilities will have an effect on resale values, since buyers are likely to postpone purchasing as far as possible in the hope that new machinery will be sh>rtly .forth coming, and that items such as sales tax will be reduced. Apart , from -the -only other prospective buyers -able "to offer reasonable prices would be Blue Spec Gold Vines and Comet*Gold 1/ -.3 ^ines, and it le certain that a representative of the latter si>rspany would he at the sale* Host people 'who are interested in the purchase of Dining, oachinery are well aware that Be Bernales* undertakings are usually equipped oy shuffling from one mine to another, second hand machinery, which in some instances is only fit for the scrap heap* Keen bidding Is not to be expected from these . buyers for machinery of doubtful condition and age, as is a ^fai-r proportion of the present plant* The above facts oust'be borne in Bind when reading through the prices which 1 have put on the various items, and which show some very severe reductions on those supplied by the Company. As a general guide you eould refer to the prices for the ffbdglna break up, which Z understand -has taken place, or is about to take place, but account must be taken of the faot that the Wodgina plant was a much better one than thie one, and did little work after its erection. Xt is difficult to see how the Company arrived at the prices shown on the inventory, but they seem. with few exceptions, to be new prices at Perth, with a sum of 20,000 added to sllow for freight and erection coate* The prices that X have shown are - . estimates of what would be got tax the material as it stands on the lease, since if it came to the point.of disposal, Z assume that this would be done-by auction or tender, as is being -done all over the country at present with surplus war time undertakings* Bare then, le an estimate, with comments, based.on the invent- ory of August, 1st* The left hand column of figures shows my appraisals, while the right hand column le taken from the inventory EBGZHSS. ^ C? $i. w* . Vo a nel V a wa ft a* / they would be sold with them* P-rice r shown is about new p-re-war. Petrol and.kexoscne engines have-low resale I value* Value of one engine Included .in item 12 hereunder* .The second*.engine ' l Is a-duplication and appeara'in Sundries \*i teo 6. . (2). 3* *8 b*p. Rational Diesel Engines. One la duplicated'and ls(jalued)in item 5, The .other two. are not in use* One has a cracked head* Both second hand* /Price shown la about pre-war new* Two!) Cody* ,. . (3}.. I.38 h*p* Bister Engine and Cbnmressor (Portable)* Zn fair order* / Used as auxiliary at Vampire Gorge* Shown at about pre-war new price* Portables have comparatively high maintenance - cost and 0 400 1100 - 4- (brought 2b rward (*/ 1 40 b.p. lorman Ricardo Portable Cob* pressor unit. At Walters leases*---** (Price shown is pre-war new.-} ',((5) 1 -y 9 h.p. National He eel direct-coupled to 5 K.W. PC generator. See-itea 2 above. ^Cbuld not bave cost price . abown even when new. Sad done a lot of work. Pair resale value.) . (6) 1 5 cylinder P. A. National Diesel (275 b.p.) driving 100 K.V. 44 V, alternator. ^Engine le second band and needs maintenance* gudgeon pins are worn. The alternator it a con verted generator and is old. Vaa belt drive. Pair resale value.') (7). 1 H.A.W. 1 cylinder National Diesel driving 50 KVA 440 V. 50 cycle alternator, /Shown at about pre-war; new price, \nfair order and bas fair resale Palue/) (S) l 6 cylinder Croesiey Diesel Engine ' ' 100' b.p. A reconditioned transport bus engine taken over with Walters' leases. (Atomisers axe worn out and no replacements are available* New' price shown. ) (9) 1 142 b*p. Vickers Pettere piesel Engine. 4 2 cycle engine*of old design, and bas'not yet been ereoted.VSougbt to . drive Sowett and lindley Compressor. Pair resale value.') : do) (ID 1 Alternator wltb Switchboard and' instruments 250 K.W. 440 V.. 50 cycle. Duplicated on last page of inventory.' is an old model and shown at about pre-\ (war new price. Psir resale value. / 1 220 c.'ft. Compressor Broome$ Wad^e. /In fair order and bae fair resale.\ ( value. Shown at about pre-war* new ) vpriee. X (12) 1 National Compressor Kerosene Engine and receiver for starting engines-* Engine from item CO .above* All prices shown are about pre-Var new. All In fair order and would have fair resale value. ) (13) 1 large air receiver 16*6* x 6,6". This is an old boiler brought from Whim Creek and is therefore probably ' about 30 years old, and has no pressure ticket. (Very low resale value. ) . ^Total Carried Forward"") fif 550 1640 400 1100 100 450 2000 3500 500 r 1200 . 400 1200 500 1400 500 ` 1.700;. 150. 400 70 160 20 200 5190 12950 \ )t:Brought Jbrward 5190 (14) 1 Small air,reeeiver 7* x 4*. Actually 7f x 3f. 51s in good order and bae guage and inspection cover* /Fair reeale value*'/ 30 (15) ' 1 500 c. ft* Air Compressor Srowett and Lindley, 2 stage* Nat. erected* Second hand but appears in goocTorder. (Shown at price which seems above pre-war new 'for such a small capacity* Fair resaleN value* / 500 (16) 1 .. 220 c. ft* Holman.Compressor. Bought with Walters* Leases* (Shown at pre war new .price. Fair order. Fair resale. \ * 150 (17) (18) 2 Air Beceiv'ers 15* * 5f* Apparently conversion. Very. low resale value.) i .' , l Tractor Bulldozer 6 cylinder CLetrac B. D. H. Bieeel.'.' Tractor is second band and gets Vo ugh. treatment so is often under repair* Blade and hydrolie con trol equipment manufactured on the'job. /Shown at pre-war new price* Fair ) i^resale value. / 30 600 (19) 1 leader - Gardner Denver* Brand new* (Bew-price.) 1250 (20) 1 Friction winch. Goodlorder grooved type. (low resale value*). (21) 1 ELectric'iSincb double drum with 15 b*p. motor apd controls. Snail type* Good order* CShown at v/ery high price* Fair resale.) 20 200 tal for Engines. 7970 12950 75 1500 500 300 1200 1250 6o 600 .18435 MOTORS. A*C. 440 Volt 50 cycle. /'As far as 1 can determine the motors are .shown at about pre-war new price.J The I5fr borse power motor shown on the list is a duplication and is included in the 3 15 boras power motors constituting the third item./in general* motors hays a good resale`Value since they have few moving parte and electrical coils do not wear out if properly * treated* However* the very fine dust from the mill in which the bulk of the motors is used has got well into the windings and bearings so that their new value must.be heavily discounted, for a break-up assessment in an iso lated area in which there .are few elec trical installations of any kind. *) 1000 ccV'W *--* - 6- ITOR VEHICLES. 1 lodge truck has no tyres, and the springe have been taken out and used on bulldozer. It is practically wrecked. The second truck continually breaks down. The runabout misfires and the track rod keeps falling off. The body work on all vehicles is dilapidated beyond repair at reasonable coat, and they axe all contin,- ually causing hold ups, despite a lot of 1 half-hearted tinkering. /They are a liability rather than an asset on an undertaking of this nature* The tyres are in only fair condition on the two vehicles that have them, and at present * the second hand value of vehicles in bad mechanical condition is largely.a function of the value of the tyres. ) 100 To tal for electric Vo to re and VO tor Vehicles } 1300 TOOL SHARPER!VO. (l) 1 Climax Tool sharpening furnace. 'Shown at new price and is in good order. Zt has no moving parts, but is subject to heating so that linings have to be replaced. Good resale value. (2) 1 Holman Ho. 11 Tool sharpener. A fairly old machine which has done alot-of work and. often gives trouble. (Low resale value.) (3) 1 Climax tool sharpener, with spares. A small machine, but is nearly new and gives no trouble. /Good resale value.) ^Jtotal for Tool-Sharpening.^ 40 150 250 440 BOOS PRILLS. Second hand rock drills are always a very /doubtful proposition from the buyers point of view. Although they are of very rugged construction, they receive, almost without / exception, continued abuse from the miners. ]. They axe made of special alloy steels, and j their inner surfaces are accurately machined 1 and case hardened, as are all moving parts i which means that their first cost is high, i Sven without abuse they are subjected to ; considerable wear since-they are high speed machines and their resale at a reasonable figure depends almost entirely on whether 1 spare parts can be bought with them at the time. There are some spare parts in the \ store for all drills, and if they are sold with the machines, a fair price would be \ got -o4r the -lather* 2for-e spare parte are \expected from YiDnietharrs. 600 2900 75 .475 475 1025 -7 - J,l) 3 28 Holman Rock drills* Nearly new. Two at Yampire and one at Walters'. Vi th spares* (2) 1 Large Ingersol Band Ibck drill* Spare machine in tool shop with spares. (3) 3 240 Hainan Rack drills. Two nearly new and one fairly old at Valters'. With spares* (4) 7 Silver Bullet Holman rock drills* One bought with Walters and six from Yinnietharra. Vith spares* (5) 4 Thor Hand drills, not two as stated. . Two new, and two idle for lack of parts. (6) 1 c.P. 3" Bock drill. Good order* 'Only few spares available. 3 Climax rook drills. Use hexagonal steel, none of which is at.present . available on the mine so- drills not in use* With spares* tal f0 r lb ck Drill e wi th 180 60 200 280 60 120 900 300 100 300 500 100 320 1620 SUNDRY. (1) 1 Lathe. . 1 Radial Drill. 3 Blacksmith's Anvils and blocks, etc. The lathe is very old and has a bent spindle and broken teeth in the spur wheels* The drill is old but seems sound. There are three anvils alto gether and a quantity of the usual - blacksmith's tools. GAllof. this- equipment.has%& very low resale value in this area. ) (2) 1 Refrigerating Plant complete with freezing room.. This plant is about . 12 months old and is in good order* /.Apparently new price la shown. Good Resale value* (3) 15 Vine Trucks. Thirteen at Yamplre and two at Walters'* Some from Whim Creek* Lcw resale value*^ (4) 1 Concrete tfixer complete with engine* Medium size outfit with 5 h*p. National kerosene engine** See Item (l) under Engines. Partially dismantled, (price shown apparently new. Pair resale'-, value.^ r/Total carried forward 150 ` 750 45 ico 10 45 450 1325 150 35c 2275 8- - 11 (^Brought 5*0 rward 1045 (5) 1 2 ton chain block1 3 ton chain block 1 f ton chain block. Hot 3 ton as stated. ' In good order. (Good resale value.^ 20 (6) 1 Refrigerating plant conmlete.with 3 h.p. Southern Cross Engine. (This was bought in Ibebouxne together with the large store of the northern Trading Co. for 1,000. It is said to be in good order though it is not. erected. Over valued at 600. Fair resale value. 200 (7) 1 Fuel tank and stand* Capacity 30,000 gallons. At Point Sampson waiting to ' be erected -there* /1 did .no t see it, but it is said to oe new.} (8) 2 500 ft. double flying foxes* Abandoned in favour of rails and skip* (Low resale value*} 100 (9) (10) 4 Spare sets conveyor head and tail pulleys complete with adjusting blocks - and idlers. There are six sets on Job, four are new and two second hand. Low resale value. The four new sets \ ( could not possibly have cost 500 per ) jet. . 3 Jaw Crackers 15" x 9* each*. One i8 duplicated in.item (l6). It is in fair order arid is on Valters' leases. The .other two are at Vampire Gorge and one is In pieces* (They have & low resale value*} ' 3>o 150 (11) 1 Sturtevant 16 x 8 Jaw Cracker* Luplicated in item (10) above* (l2} (13) 1 Type fy. Traylor Crusher 1* 8 with spares. Brought in second hand. ' The most trouble-free unit in the mill* Zn fair order and would have fairS (resale value. s 1 Large sturtevant Itolls with spares* / These are 30' x 15.* and were part of ths old Vbim Creek plant which was purchased by Walters, who sold items to both this mine.and C. S.R. The.rolls 'are not less than 30 years old and C.S.R* got a duplicate set for ajjO. /The price shown here is roughly preA / war new price for a modern set of - j ( rolls of the same size. - Very low / \jcesale value. ./ 300 % (14) 1 Small set of Sturtevant rolls. Hot in use. (Too small. Hew price shown. Very low-resale value.") 2275 35 600 2000 400 2000 1050 400 f\ 650 A 600 *- Ji b ^ (15) (16) - 9- 6 Brought forward 2185 Set 20" x 12* Jaques rolls with spares. These rolls have been woefully ij.1- \ treated. One roll had cut right through its brass on one side, and into the iron frame, yet it -was still being used though the electrie motor driving it was running so hot that an air jet'was played on it in the last stages* This Jset is of modern design but as rolls \iaare little used these days it has a j ow resale value. / Sets .Allan rolls,with spares* These are 20" x 12* and are worn. ( They were here years ago to oy knowledge and axe not now in use having.been thrown out on the dump. Very low resale* alue.) 50 50 (17} 1 Bo tax Screen with spares* . There are two of these in the mill and they were imported from England. CC.S.K. had two made under license in Melbourne and tbe'agreed price was 9*&* 7air resale value. } (18) 3 Niagara Screens with spares* Two axe in use in the mill and one is on the dump but will be brought in soon. (Pair resale value.} (19) 2 Shaker screens with spares. New from J&K.aaxglgc oorlie foundry. Not yet used, jair resale value.} (20) 1 Taques vibrator screen with spares. /Shown at new price. . In fair order} (Fair resale value. S (21) Trommel'Screen, with spares. ^Eas not been properly lubricated. In fair o^der and baa fair, resale ' value. / (22) 5 Large cyclones with connections. One came from England and four were made on the job.of heavy galvanised . iron riveted and soldered. (Very low resale value. } Kubit Hammer Jtt11 with spares. Of English make. ^Subjected to more normal wear than.any other machine in plant so has low resale value.} Large exhaust fans. There are 5 altogether; 2 are nearly new, one is fairly.old and two were made on the job. (/`air resale value.} 5* 6" displacement fan. Not being used. Consists of a 6 bladed pro peller and plate baffle only. /low resale value*} 300 250 X 300 100 "SB 10260 60Q 500 150 750 500 330 i-50 xo - (26) (27.) 4 ' goal! exhaust fans. only one is use. (All la fair order only. Pair resale slue.*') 9 Conveyors complete with head and tail pulleys, driving reductions etc. with gantries. Ibur are about 20 ft* long, four are about 40 ft. and one of 70 ft.' TJiis Beans about 650 feet of belt, fit is hard to see how they could^have cost 2,700. Low resale (28) 1 Sicking table complete with drive and eooentrlc. Hot yet ereoted* (Good order but low resale value. Made os the Job. ) (29) 1 Large Crusher 30 x 12 Jaw. Only the flywheels with shafting and swing Jaw have arrived on Job. Main frame la in fbebourne. Fair resale value.) (30) 1 (31) 1 * Traylor Crusher remetalling Jig. This item consists of two small castings, one of which fits inside the other and both can be carried about. lt has not been used and the invoice price-is 14., yet.it is shown here at 650." It is quite worthless to anybody but the purchaser of the Traylor cracker and would have to be thrown in with iO Electric 300 Amp. Welder. ^Nearly new'and good resale value. (32) 1 -Hoad Grader with 6 ft. blade* Consists of hand controls for the blade, mounted on a small camel' back chassis running o-n four iron wheel8 80. that.it has no rubber tyres. It has no. engine'and was designed to be towed by a truck or traotor.xt could not have cost 750* new lr it had been gold plated. Low rseal e value.) (33). 1 5 too weighbridge. Came from Whim Creek s (34) 6 Wheelbarrowe.. Ab resale value.) (35) 1 Corrugated Iron Curver. Pair order. Case from Whim Creek. Falr resale value.') (36) 4 tons of drill steel. All in use. vry low resale value.) j^Total carried forward.*) 20 40 4725 /xf 15485 100 2700 150 800 100 750 150 400 19260 / V  11 - ' ^Brought Ibrward^ (37) -' 1000 feet 23 lb. rail. 9& tons trata rails 9300 feet piping. The first lot of tram rails is in use. The second lot was bought at *fi nni etbarra and has not yet arrived, while the piping is all in use.C Low resale for the vpailpuees7.fpr rails but higher Qbtal for Sundries?) 4725 150 4875 /M 19260 . 250 19510 SUILDIHOS. / The buildings are for the most past of wood and iron, with / the exception of the power house and mill buildings which hare / steel frames. Much of the- timber is new, but the bulk of the / iron is second-hand. The miners huts are entirely new, but the remaining small buildings were apparently made up. out of a number of second-hand buildings purohased in Boebourne. A large store was bought, together with some smaller structures, and a disused hotel from doseack, and all were dismantled and re-assembled in different forme here. The resale value of thie material is only y fair. Only walls and roofs could be resold because floors when Vpresent are of cement. / (1) 1 Tower House. Trom Southern Cross United Mines. Steel frame only. Tartly covered by iron./Pair resale value. ) 500 (2) 1 Building housing treatment plant. Prame of steel with some wood. Is roofed.but has no sides* (low resale value. ) 100 (3) 1 Building housing blacksmith and tom sharpening shop. Bush shed-conststing of roof only supported on various odds and ends."*All second-hand./Almost no resale value. \ (4) 1 Building containing three offices, store and two bulk stores. Iron and woo.d frame. Both second hand., Mew asbestos lining in offices only. /Pair resale value. ^ v 200 (5) 1 Mess room, kitchen, stoves, ' store rooms and equipment. Mew timber, old iron, no lining, foalx resale value.) 150 (6) 1 Change room with showers, basins, troughs and installations. Mew timber, old iron, no lining, /low resale value.) 100 (7) 1 Iron building used as temporary Mine Store. Bush timber frame. Some new iron and some old. (J2o* resale value.) 10 carried forward.') TO*6*5 V (Brought forward) IO65 (8) 12 Miners Huts, iron and asbestos. Hot' iron as stated, but all asbestos and all new. /Fair resale value.) 240 (9) 1 louse, iron and softwood, two rooms and verandah. 411 second hand. /Low resale value.) 25 1 Iron house, 3 rooms. Hew timber, v second hand iron. /low resale value.) 40 (11) 1 Iron bouse, 2 rooms. Second hand v timber, new iron. /Fair resale vaLue.) (12) 1 Iron house, 3 rooms. 411 second hand. Low resale value./ 2P 30 (13) 1 Iron house, 3 rooms. AL1 second hand. /Low resale value.) 40 (14) 1 3 room iron camp. .Second hand. -Takwn over with leases. /Low resale value.) v (15) 1 Iron Ijut. Second hand./Low resale value.). L 30 10 (16) Material for three staff houses cut ready for erection. . Hew timber, new asbestos, second hand iron, /.Good re sale value while not erected.) f 300 (Total for Buildings.^ 1810 STOKES. (1) Standard Steel. It is of various sections and is scattered about ,tbe job. (Jt would bare a low resale value.) . (2) Kinev'stores, 'spare parts, etc. - /Without checking'the individual items it\ / can be said that they are present in the / 8 to re to the .approximate value indicated. [ In a break up sale, however, a large part I of them would have to be sold with the / particular machine for which they are I suited. Bode drill parts, for instance, I come Into this category as pointed out elsewhere, and since they are scarce at the moment, the drills themselves would have to be practically given away if no parts accompanied them, further, since stores are always a Variable item, the amount shown will have to be heavily sdiecounted from a sale point of view. / 50 500 (TO tal carried forward. 550 200 2500 2700 :f: kit - 13 - Brought Forward 550 (3} nine Stores* These are naade up mainly of- tinned foods* so tee clothing* and a small amount of perish- ablee. The quantity varies quite widely, particularly in the wet season. Their resale value in this country is nigh. Those that were present at the time of sale would _ - bring dose to cost price. The value showns. w for this item is at present roughly correctJ 1000' 1553 Shafting,. pulley8, bearings, belting, rock drill columns/'ho see and clips;" fitters and blacksmiths tools, tex rope pulleys and tex ropes.' All pipes and fittings throughout plant. 'This item appears to be in part a fabric ation. The'only parte of it not yet accounted' for are.rock drill column's,-hoses and dips, tex ropes and somq'pulleys. Bach machine in the mill is driven by its own motor through a tex rope drive, and there are therefore no countershafts and bearings. There is only one countershaft in the power house which furnishes power ( to the lathe and radial drill, but there I ' are odd pulleys and bits of shafting on / the scrap heap and various parts of the ! -lease. The only bearings are those in the | motors and on the elevators and spare * elevator gear, all of which have been ; charged out at very high rates. ' ?h black- I smiths tools, of which there axe vary few, come under item (l) of Sundries, while some of .the fitters tools on the job belong to the Company and'some are the property of the fitters.__ Sines the mill crushes dry, there is ody a few feet of . water pipe in it, which supplies water to flush out rejects in.two places (-see flow sheet). Other piping is used for suction ducts and has been made up on the joh, some / from flat iron and some from old drums, and / its resale value is nil-* Tex rope pulleys ( are keyed to their respective motors or f shafts, and it would not be economical to '/ remove them for eale purposes, and their j value is included with the major unit. The / value for resale of tbe rock drill columns,/ Vhoses and clips with some odd pulleys and / shafting is only fair. . / 200 1 250 K.W. Alternator and Starter recently sent up. This Is a duplication of item (10) under Engines. lfcte different prices for the seme article on the same inventory. 2700 1500 4200 - -.V i * - 14 - Bag Elevator. As used by farmers. Complete with Engine. In good order but has low resale value\ Chere. Ilant^Buildings,"(height and cartag^) from Ylnnleth&rra. 2b buildings from Yinnietharra have yet arrived on the job. Some pipe and rock drills have been brought in/and are accounted for elsewhere.) 30 All Swit'ch Boards wiring, Electrical Instruments and Special starters, and other ELectrical equipment. .There are four small switchboards in the mill which carry twenty-four starters, a H starter regulator and & phase switch, with fuse boxes and wiring. The starters have all been duplicated under Kotors. " The main switch boards in the power, house have three new kilowatt hour meters, about 6ix second hand volt and Amp.- meters, two Triple pole double throw switches, a breaker switch, and porcelain fuse holders with ^ wiring and etceteras./ The 250 K.V. alter nator switch board is included in item X (10) under "Engines"'and hew electrical equipment is included in "Mine Stores, spare parte." fAppart"froo items not dup licated, the electrical gear'for resale purposes Is not of great value. .'Several thousand feet of power line and house wirings with fittings would be Included. The resale value would be fair.) 300 EXTRAS. Apart from the lots shown in the inventory, those below have been brought onto the lease. Bass-Feeder with Richardson reduction gear and 3 b*p. motor; In good order, but not erected, @air resale vslue.) =D Ore Bin. 14* x'10*. -In-good order but not erected. Fabricated steel. Sloping bottom, no stand. low resale value.) " 50 line ore bin. 16* diameter by 15* high. Steel' plate "curved-'and punched for riveting or bolting. Good order. ^lowresale value.) 50 Crab wi nch. . Fairly old, but in working order. (Low resale value. ) 5 Small D. C. llo tor about 3 K.W. / Just been erected in power house/Fair resale value.) , 10 Snail wood and iron buildings. Second hand timber and iron. low resale value.) 20 New miners, huts, wood and asbestos, but not -erected. (oc.d -resale vel-u-e*) /V (Total for Extras.) 1-50 100 4000 4000 - 15 - summary or estimated resae.prices ABD IBVEBIOHY PRICES. 1^0 Resale Engines .............................................. -Mo to zs (El ectri c)............ ............. * Motor Vehicles .............................. Pumps................................................... Tool Sharpening............................ Rack Drills and Parts.............. Sundry ................................................. Buildings................................... .. Stores ................................................. Shaftings, pulleys, etc............ Alternator and Starter............ Beg Elevator ................................... Switch-Boards, etc....................... - Extras*,..................... ........................ .. 7970 1000 100 50 440 900 4875 . 1810 1550 330 .- 3P 300 3.35 19560 Invento ry 18435 2300 600 160 1025 1620 19510 9500 4200 5500 1400 100 4000 -- 6835O These values are tor material that could actually he seen at either tbe Vampire or Wittenoom's Gorge leasee* They do cot include buildings from Yionietbarxa, which have cot yet arrived, cor tbe fuel tack which is to be erected at Point Sampson. Though I have not read tbe terms of tbe mortgage, I under- stand that it waa given over material on tbe.Vampire leases only, and not on tbe Wittenoom leases* If this be'so tbe value of equipment at Valters leases trill have to be deducted from tbe figure shown. Tbe total resale value'of all equipment on both leases is estimated at L95^0 in-situ. Zt would, however, cpst the Government a- considerable sum* to realise on tbe material, tbe usual figure being about 10# of tbe gross .value, which in this .. case would amount' to i!95o* leaving a' balance of L7,604. . In ' round figures tbe break up value of tbe whole of tbe equipment ., la, in my opinion; cot more than 17,500, and I therefore conclude that there la insufficient cover for the-existing mortgage* re > HIS I.TT G. * The sedimentary xocze of tile Bullsgifle' series have been eroded to fora many steep gorges, in the sides of which the fibre bearing rock has been exposed. The beds to be mined are therefore almost horizontal for the moat part, and often diffi cult to approach when outcropping in almost vertical cliff faces high above tbs bottom of the gorges, as happens at the Company* e Wittenoom Gorge leases* Zn Vampire Gorge, however, the terrain is only moderately rough, and it Is hare that the bulk of-fibre jpro-duced to date has been mined. The asbestos can be won either by benching on the faoe of 'the gorge or by driving into the hill, using underground methods . of mining. The choice depends upon the amount of overburden to be removed in the former method, and. this has been reasonable .in the past so that benching has so far accounted for most of the production, though underground-methods are being attempted* Zn benching, the overburden is bored with rock drills to a depth of about 6 feet and the holes are oharged and fired in the normal way* Due to the fact that it is horizontally bedded the rock tends to break in flat slabs and is somewhat more difficult to dispose of than normal broken rock. Disposal is now handled by a Diesel tractor and bulldozes which pushes the broken x> ok \ over the edge of the bench, and this machine is-equivalent to 30 or more shovellers. The present output is almost entirely a function of-the successful operation of the tractor and bulldozer, V; . which is about $0 h.p, being the second largest size in a range , . of four sizes. It is quite o-ftea out of aotion for repairs, mainly due to the inexperience of the driver, who does not seem to realise that even such a- rugged machine has its limits. ' Despite -^relatively high maintenance it still shifts .the waste rode at a /f- '. coQt of a few pence per yard. Bath maintenance and cost could be /'^reduced if one of the largest models ofmachlnes could besecured. #4;: ;:.-&he steepness of the'gorge faoe above the fibre bands is such .that-the width of the bench seldom exceeds 2P feet before the V-i''amount of overburden to .be removed-becomes too great to be economic;tr :al by the present methods. ' In other places the bench can only be i- /.taken out to a width sufficient to let the motor truck through,, i , which is about 10 feet, while there will be. found a few places s ' in which the overburden is too thick to make it economically removable at all. H>wever, in a limited area near, the main office it appears that. a.bench .width of, 50 ox-60 feet may be possible. >&/ After the fibre seams have been-unoovered they are barred jj or sandblasted out and taken to the mill'in a motor truck which'li^-'passes right along the benches on the Baat side of the gorge where Vffipmost of the mining is being done. , Two faces are being worked on Vest side of the gorge, where the broken rook is removed by land since the bulldozer is fully occupied on the Bast side. In these operations the workmen are on a contract basis, being mfffrom their ore. They were formerly paid by the fathom of rock ,-j^.broken, both overburden and fibre, but it was found that they were H/Srcareless In sorting the ore from the barren rock, so that a high ver the edge of.the bench'by. the started in preparation for under&i&*g.round mining methods in the near future. The general idea is to a comparatively narrow strip right round the gorge faces, ^I'ifromVwhich the ore will be extracted, using some sort of room > Vnd:pillar method, .w-1 i.tUh _s_c__r_a__p__e_rs to pul1l out the _w__a__sa.te-_r_o__cIk. .a__n__d3 -idump-, it. over iha edge-of the* french. Y /jv ' Proa the point of view of anyone used to modern methods of breaking rock, the ore production side of both this undertaking and that of Australian Slue Asbestos in Wittenooa* s Gorge has been handled in a manner which betrays inexperience of any but the most elementary methods* Ur* Sbxeall has noted on the file that Ur* Stubbs is a young man of considerable energy and ability, and this is quite true. He is actually however, a mechanical and electrical man and freely admits that before coming to Vampire Gorge he had had no experience whatever of mining methods, and-knew nothing about asbestos. He says, quite frankly, that 'he wishes that Australian BLue Asbestos, who are further advanced with their underground work, would hurry up and find out the most economical form of underground mining,' so that he could adopt it without the expense of experimentation* But Ur. Hancock, who manages the Australian Blue Asbestoe project ie a station man, with even less experience about a mine than Stubbs, so that it is a ease of the blind leading the blind* Both Hancock and Stubbs are assisted on the mining eide by men who hold shift bosses tickets. The point is that both projects have long passed the prospecting stages in which small quantities of ore were won by the simplest methods from the easiest plaoes, and are sow well beyond the capacity of the average shift hoes* The problem to be faced in the future development of the asbestos industry in this State is purely a mining one* The metallurgical requirements of the undertaking are comparatively simple, eince the separation of the fibre ie an- entirely mechanical process, and since fee deposits are so large and regular the geological aspect ie also relatively simple. It ie an absolute certainty that neither Cbmpany will have a hope of'success until they bring their oper ations under the constant supervision of an engineer with wide experience of' modern mining practice. Let us excamine some of the mistakes of inexperience that have already been made and have caused ouch money to be wasted. - It ie well known that quarrying methods are ctieaper than under ground methods, and should therefore not he abandoned in favour . . of the latter until the last pound of ore has been economically won by these means. It is equally well known that long blast boles break much more rock per pound of explosive than short ^ones and' this means lower costs* -Sx more ideal place than the free face of one of these gorges could be found for the use of long blast holes, and yet all the miners that I have seen use ..short 6-foot holes as If they were.working a narrow stops undex5-. -/.-.ground* Hr. Stubbs.does not-think that the long blast holes will vrr .. work because .the boxring ie too hard and the rock on the gorge face is cracked due to weathering, which would dissipate'the force of the explosion. Both of these objections apply.to the . use of. smaller holes which have to be bored and fired in the same,hard, cracked rook* By employing a small amount of special equipment, most of whioh is already on the job, an experiemed " man could do some real blasting and win some fibre at less than v half its present mining costs* *t is not'claimed that copy-book I:..-. , blasting methods will work'at the first attempt, but they can be . adapted to suit the particular conditions only by one with the /;i.:^.Vneces8ary experience and tenacity. Even if large scale blasting could be brought to perfection ^&;^''.the stage will ultimately be reached at which underground mining : .^becomes the more economical proposition since the overburden attaina a dpth of up to several hundred feet in some places* %jg^-^:f/The maximum amount of rock that can be removed economically from I'S^i^l-both between*and above the fibre bands by large scale blasting methods is.likely to be of* the order of 30 .ft* instead of about 1eet by the present mettods, and no underground mining should ^^||g^-,bej_attempted till the cheaper ore has been won. *'' /J- - 18 - /J3. " The extra amount of ore that could be mined from the faces before underground mining is embarked on oould be computed, but not until a complete surrey plan of' ell faces hae been made. Much of this ore has already been locked up both at Yaaplre Gorge and at Australian Slue Asbestos leases by erecting buildings of all descriptions at the foot of the faces, and this building 1 s still going on. All buildings including the plant should have been located well clear of the working faces whatever the method used, but particularly when real blasting is to be done. In the computation of the extra fibre to be got from the faces, account will have to be taken of the fact that the gorge face rises above 'tfce fibre bands in benches* '*f the first bench rises 20 feet above the bands, and the second one rises 30 feet above the first, the overburden can only be economically taken off to the height of the first bench, that is, SO feet, since at 30 feet, the est imated maximum economical height, no foothold could be gained from which'to bore holes. Though much fibre near the plant has been locked up to this method, there is another occurrence further down the gorge, which is at a different horizon, and la wall clear of any structures. Very little is known about it, and it should be thoroughly investigated with a view to getting cheaper fibre than by under ground mining higher up the gorge. The possibility exists.that underground mining may not have to be tackled foe years to come. .t The proposed underground mining methods were apparently oho sen so -that scrapers could be used to obviate sboveHingoof the muiloek. The idea was taken from a text book by Hancock and is being followed by Stubbs, and a- few moments consideration ebows that a scraper is about the most unsuitable of any mechan ical contrivance on this'type of work. A scraper does its best work when it can be set up at a fixed station and continually fed with'dirt from a rill. Scrapers were in use at Mt. Isa under these conditions, being erected in a scraper drive which was bed by a number of rills'from. the- stope above, and each scraper would handle tens of thousands of tons of dirt from the one fixed position. When narrow seams in a flat bedded deposit have to be mined, it is clear that large-areas in a horizontal plane must be covered even for a small production. If scrapers are used to remove the dirt, this means mueh lost timein shifting, and a large number of scrapers, particularly when a bord and pillar system of mining is used. Svery time a cut is fired new .pin boles have to.be bored1, and the-scraper, which must be a. `portable one, has to'.be movedbut of the'way of the shots. -,Con tinued trouble is e^erienced with-eye bolts which often pull out in the hardest of rocks and which take time to drive in. Great strain and wear comes on the mopes whioh rapidly deteriorate and have to be frequently replaced. In short, a scraper is not nearly flexible enough. The basis principle to be considered in. the mechanical handling of dirt in a narrow flat bedded deposit is mobility. By coincidence, I have just received from the library the Bulletin of the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy for July 1945, which contains an article on scraping practice as used in a Spanish mine. Figures quoted show that in loading pyrites in upper cuts the aotual working time was 2 hours 2 minutes in an 8 hour- shift, while for scraping fill it was 3 hours 35 minutes in 8 hours* .Hancock's scraper is much too light and moves too fast and was probably designed for different material. To .handle the slabby rock that is a feature of these asbestoe mines a heavy .slow-speed scraper with short teeth would probably-give much better results. Hancock's foreman tells me that the present unit, which is portable and rune on the mine tracks, is now ho faster .-than hand, shovelling. It is operated by air a dqubla * drum scraper winch, and ie used to bog out the drive faces.- An air operated Dine car loader'would be ouch do re suitable in this case since it possesses greater nobility due to the fact, that no pin boles, ropes or pulley blocks hare to be set up and maintained. Its conditions of operation are otherwise similar to the scraper, in that it ouet be connected to the mine air line, it runs on the mine rails, and has to be shifted back when blasting. There is a sew mine car loader on the lease at Yampire Gorge, which bee not yet been assembled. _. Eancock is driving his levels 20 feet wide because it is "pbain that prices for this width at which contractors can make good money are less than double the prices for a width of 10 fast at which they could make the seme money. He therefore considers that he is breaking*the ground**cheaply which is quite wrong. The object of any development'policy is to open up an ore body in such a way that the later exploitation by stoplng can be done most cheaply. The prime factor in development is speed, and no mine of any consequence ever attempts to combine half-hearted 8toping methods with their development programmes. The advantages of speed are quite difficult to show on a financial balance sheet, while the doubtful advantage that has been indicated above is easily shown. Speed of development comes from keeping the drives as narrow as is compatible with the use.to which.tbey are to be put* One considerable advantage is that the dirt breaks finer and can be handled more rapidly.than coarser dirt. Since the face is narrower the loader or scraper does not have to be moved as often as in a wide face. These two factors alone mean that considerable time, and money are saved in handling the dirt, at* a slightly greater cost for increase fracteur expenditure, a dis advantage which they greatly out-wei'gh. The principal/reason why very wide headings mean wasted money, is that when the ore is broken from stopss, not more than one third of it is sent to the mill and the other two thirds, which is barreri rock, is left in the stope, but in development headings all rock that is broken must be removed, and by the inefficient ecraper. Hundreds of feet of underground development'for a bord and pillar system of mining has been*started right' from the face of the gorge, .and advancing into the hill, both at the Australian Slue Asbestos, and Vest Australian Blue Asbestos.fibres leases, and the expenditure involved has been wasted to a large extent for the following reasons. -r' The'economical' exploitation of`;these'deposits demands that the maxdmuo possible extraction be got/from any developed area* This'statement postulates that no matter what the method .used, it must be carried to- the limit of safe subsidence, which willshortly be dealt with more fully. Sincethe gorge*facea are everywhere quite precipitous it is obvious that directly under these faces ore extraction cannot be carried to anywhere near the limits of subsidence, which.would cause the disturbance of large masses of rock on the faces* Various mine utilities have been built dose to the faces which are now being ao developed, so that rockB disturbed by subsidence would come down on travellingways, smash up air lines and rails, demolish anything in their way, and be a constant source of danger to any one having to pass through the narrow gorges. To make sure then that, such-things do not happen only -a email proportion of the ore developed by under ground methods can be taken from near the gorge fab*, and its.cost will be high. Seeing that there le such a large quantity'of ore available this development is a waste of money, and should have .been done well Inside the hill where subsidence cannot affect .operations outside. It is an attempt to save mosey.on transport of waste rock but is ill-founded for the above reason, and also beeattae a carefully d-eeig-aed -e-topi-ng -system will --el imi nat* -all Create rock transport in a topes. The only rock that will need to be brought outelde will be ^iob development. It should be plain that if any further ore ie to be cheaply won from near the gorge faces, it trill have to be done by sore efficient.blasting methods ae has been suggested in the early part of this section, which will leave the face clean'and safe and not subject to subsidence. Extending into the hill from the new free face after this ore has been won, is a block of ore which will be coBtly to extract because as has been explained, it cannot be mined to the point of_safe subsidence, and is therefore not economical to develop 'tally In the Initial stages of underground operation. Tor safety the length of this block of ore will have to be the full length of the working face, and its width approximately twice the height o f overburden. For Test Australian Blue Asbestos Fibres this width will be approximately 200 feet, while for Australian Blue Asbwstos It will be about 600 feet at their present workings. Though 1 do not. agree with underground exploitation at this stage Z think that it would have been further ahead than it'is at a* lower cost if these things had been taken into consideration. The method of underground mining to'be used has been the subject of much discussion which has resulted In Initial attempts at bord and pillar.praetice. The rock at the gorge faoe is cracked by weathering and partly ooddised, causing odd soft patches. As the.drive proceeds into the hill, the cracks and oxidation disappear, and at 500 feet into the hill, the rock-is . hard and dense. Xt can be broken-eo that both the roof and . floor are .almost perfectly flat surfaces, whioh have been oxpoeed over long lengths, and widths up to 25 feet by the drives in Australian Blue Asbestos workings. The roofs when sounded with a bar give the response of good solid rock. The indication is that a cheaper method than bord and pillar, say longwall advancing, nay be feasible. The solution of . the problem is entirely depend* . ent on the matter of subsidence which is dealt with fully in text books on coal mining, and these should, be closely`studied by anyone Interested in mining in the Eamersley Badges. Coal seams are usually enclosed in such strata as sandstones, shales and clay, -ell of which are comparatively eoft. If the searn8 are not too thick they can often be worked by longwall methods a&d the roof collapsed as the face advances. Such soft strata begin to subside almost immediately after the coal is taken away from under them, but the action of subsidence is comparatively gentle and can be controlled by experienced men. The rock above the asbestos seams is very hard and brittle and will probably stand up over large areas, but no matter how strong it is, it cannot be indefinitely undercut without collaps* ing. Because it is hard and brittle it will probably stand up to the moment of failure, and then* come down, which means that subsidence in the case of hard strata is anything but gentle and cannot be controlled nearly as easily as-in the case of soft rock in coal mines. It would be quite impossible to let the roof down to the floor in the asbestos rocks, but this is not necessary. When the fibre seams are mined, up to one third of the broken rock le sent to the mill, leaving two thirds behind, which could just about fill the space occupied by the whole of the original solid rode. This broken rock could be back ftiled by an air operated bulldozer which would pack it right up to the back so that, subsidence would be a minimum and under the proper, conditions the workings would be as safe as any other underground workings. ttany ideas could be expounded along these lines, but in the hands of inexperienced miners they are apt to be dangerous, ttough if the lowest possible costs are to is arrived at they wiil have to be tried at some time or other. VQt' The ratio of rock to be broken to fibre won Is of particular Importance In either quarrying or underground methods, as i the - actual relationship between the fibre bands themselves. In some of the workings at Yampire Gorge the fibre occurs In two bands which are for the most part 8 feet apart and in this distance the fibre of all grades occupies about 3 inches on the average. In other parts of the leases the total amount of fibre ie about 3^ inches and is confined in about 3 feet of rock, while other exposures show about 4 inches confined In about 24- feet of rock. (I have been told that near Itarillana there is 9 Inches of fibre 'jljj 3 feet of rock in one exposure. Though the number and length of individual eeems varies quite widely* a steady average totel length is maintained over large lengths of exposed seam. Some people say that the seams are continuous over a length of 80 miles, but one man, who to my knowledge has been working them for ' several years, eald that they would cut out in another 50 feet into the hill. These statements represent the extremes, but the former ie more likely to prove true in the long run. In the meantime,- it is better to consider the deposit as a normal ore occurrence, and therefore subject to variation. The minimum mining width is likely to he about 7 feet, since \ ;t,the days of slave labour are gone when men crawled on their hands *1 and knees into narrow stopes, and in any event the use of modern appliances, which give lower costs than narrow mining by hand,' demands reasonable head room. The average amount of fibre is this 84 inches seems to be about laches, or 4*l6. Some of it must be lost in both mining and milling operations even when efficiently carried out, and 1 would say that the overall recovery would be about 807# of the fibre. This means that in a mining width of 7 feet, about 3.3# of the rook broken le recoverable as marketable fibre of all grades, and for safety's sake estimates should be made on the basis of 3$. Joining policy to*date has been, as the result of inexperience, costly and extremely short-sighted, and this section can he summarised in the following terms. - Get somebody who knows some thing about mining. . *>' miXIlX? PRACTICE. At'the`end of this section a flow sheet is attached showing the sequence of operations at the present time* The principle on which the separation of fibre from gangue is based is that when the ore is crushed, the gangue which is bard and brittle, breaks down, {Maintaining at all times a granular form, while the fibr_e which is tough rather than hard, splits along two perfect cleavage planes, -but retains its original unbroken length if not subjected to too rough a treatment* Thus the fibre eventually assumes a fluffy form and can be'sucked off the screens by an * air current, while the granular gangue passes either through or over the screens* In other words the milling process increases the ratio of surface area to weight,, to a much greater extent In the caee of the fibre than of the gangue, which allows a current of air of the right Velocity to pick up the fibre and leave the gangue behind* By comparison with smelting, roasting or cyanidation, as commonly used fox gold or`base metal ores, the extraction of the fibre is a.simple matter* The processes referred to sll involve chemical reactions between atoms and molecules, which cannot be observed, so that the actual results of any changes made are not determinable until some later time* On the other hand, the passage of pebestos hearing rock through the mill is observable at all stages, and the efficacy or otherwise of any alteration is immediately apparent* The operation'ls from start to finish, an entirely mechanical one of the simplest nature requiringneltber chemicals nor water, and oruahiag finer than about 6 mesh is unnecessary, which means that fine grinding, the costliest operation in particle size reduction, Is eliminated* Ibr these reasons an asbestos milling plant should operate cheaper than almost any other treatment plant, provided that it is soundly designed and operated* . . Turning now to-'-the particular mill under consideration, we find that its maximum theoretical throughput at the present time is 4 tone of ore per hour, a limit placed on it by the machine 'of the smallest capacity, in this instanoe the 12" x .10" primary * cracker* Here are some flgures'covering a produetion period of five months of this year*- U945 - April Kay June July August 'I Ore Killed Tons 246 270 .357 546 361 'Totals' 1760 2 Slbre Recovered Tons 46.00 53.5 eo.o 96.0 .77*0 352.5 34 2 sailing 1 Time % 18.7 19*0 22*4. 17*6 a.3 Hours 1.5 I?.? 89.2 136.5 90.2 19.8 444.9 5 Possible Time Hours 720 744 720 744 744 3672 6 4 5 %. 8.5 9*1 12.4 18.4 12.1 12*1 - 23- /Sd >' liguree for September were not available, but I understand that they are similar to those fox August. Colusa 3 is arrived at by division of column 2 by column 1, ' and represents the ratio of fibre recovered to rock milled, but it is to be noted that the sill is'only about 85 % efficient, so that to get the actual percentage of fibre in the mill feed, the figures in column 3 should be multiplied by 1.176. Thus for the period the average of fibre recovered to ore silled is 19*^, but the average percentage of fibre in the mill feed is 23.#. " *' Column 6 cooes from the division of column 4 by column 5 and gives the percentage of time that the mill was in actual production. These figures immediately attract.the attention since they ahow that over a period of five months the mill was in production only 12.1^ of the time, with'l8.# as the beat figure for any one month. This, of course, means that fibre production has been at best only l8.4> of the theoretical maximum. It is admitted that very few plants ewer operate near their theoretical maximum, as calculated from machine capacities, aa bag been done for the above figures, but on the other hand, any reasonably designed and erected plant can be made to operate for very dose to the theoretical maximum 4 time at a somewhat reduced machine capacity. The present plant . . falls very far short of either objective for a variety of reaeons .. which will now be examined. '* ' When Z first inspected these leases some 6J- years.ago, a small mill was being operated by Mr. I. Walters on the site of the preeent mill, which has been built up by alterations and additions to Walters* mill, using some new and some second hand equipment. These additions have been made for the most part during the last eighteen months and have been rushed eo that fibre production could begin. .. The result is that, from a mechanical point of view, the plant is an extremely poor affair, on which the amount of maintenance work required to keep the wheels turning 1 spasmodically is out of all proportion to what it would have been if reasonable care had been exercised in its erection. * The routine of the past four days'since our arrival here has * been fox 5 or 6 men to work'on it every day from 6a.m. till lunch time. It le started up about 2p.m. and shut down about 10p.m. and I aq-informed that this is the usual practice. It might he expected that, with a maintenance period of several hours every day, the plant would, give reasoz*ble service during the eight lour V.--"period of'operation, but such i a not-the case, aa stoppages occur quite often. Yesterday the Jaques rolls (20" x 10") caused a ebut down, while theday before the Traylor- cracker bogged up. Such mishaps requixe up to two hours before, a clearance can be effected. . Time is also lost when the eveniog'meal is taken, and when the crackerman lets up for any reaeon, such as to roll a cigarette, since the cracker, and so* the whole of the mill, la hand fed, aa will be seen from the flow sheet which shows that the mill does not possess a bln of any description. The feedtherefore surges from choking point to nothing at all several times during the shift. The mill la operated on contraot by a group of three men, who work on any day of the week, including Sundays, on which the wheels can be persuaded to turn. The advantages of the contract system are well known, but it is very doubtful whether they are economically sound in the present inetanee. The Company usually suppliee-the contractor with the tools to do the job, and atands the cost of the wear and tear on those tools* Sometimes a atovel worth a few shillings is the otSLy tool needed, while at other times a machine and equipment worth several hundred pounds muet he supplie In the case before ue, a complete milling plant worth several thousaad^goa-ade-has been put at-their -disposal, bxrt Tanst bvT&gfB- > tained by the Cbmpany. Pew contractors ever take any real care ,-i*i'Jrtn - yj 2i " /J / f gear supplied to them, since they do not bare to pay for its 'up-keep, and the ones in this case are no exceptions. I noticed gear -wheels out of normal reach, running perfectly dry, and eooe conveyor idler pulleys were squeaking, which means that at some future date the already difficult problem of maintenance, is likely to be increased at the Company's expense. A major consideration is the duet menace, and when the air in the gorge is stagnant, and the plant is in operation, the conditions are simply spalling. These conditio no were experienced on-two evenings within the period of my visit, causing a pall of " gust to hang in the gorge fox a distance of a quarter of a mile either side of the plant, and yet the. sen assure me that conditions have improved since my last visit.' 1 have given the Manager to understand that further improvement must be made immediately at the expense of production. The men themselves are aware that their health may rapidly deteriorate under such conditions, and I have taken pains to explain to them the action of the dust particles on the lungs. Despite this, they are reluctant to wear the respirators, which .were supplied to them by the Manage ment, and a number of which can he seen thrown into odd corners* .They say that respirators axe hot and sweaty, and quote numerous other disadvantages,'all of which are^true, but are, nevertheless, far outweighed by the one advantage of health protection. This attitude towards respirators is quite universal on all the mining fields of my experience, so that the solution of the duet problem resolves itself into the willingness of the Management to accept the responsibility of seeing to it that the various machines release as little duet as possible into the atmosphere* Both time and money have been spent to this end, but improvements are often nullified by wrong placement, slipshod work, and lack of understanding of the simplest technical principles. Attempts have been made to collect dust from the various machines by blocking off open spaces and introducing either a 4 inch or 6 inch diameter straight suction line. This supplies a strong suction over a email area and collects dust only over that same area, but causes eddy currents in adjacent areas which disperse the duet.'through open spaces which cannot-be blocked off. The strong suction also picks up heavy particles which are not harm ful to health, and deposits them in the main suction duct, where the velocity of the air current is low. Z have pointed out t^at by using an,,evasee type of take off, of calculated dimensions, instead of a straight pipe, any required velocity of air can be got over a reasonably large area at each machine, using the present fan* Two simple.principles are involved. Pirstly, dust is released when rock is crushed and particularly when that crushed'rock falls freely through the atmosphere, and collection apparatus must be installed'in such positions, which are usually at the output end of the crushing machines, and the heads of any conveyors* The second principle is that the collection apparatus . must be designed to give a low velocity of suction over as large an area ae possible, rather than a hgh velocity over a small area, causing tbe defects outlined above. Zf these principles are complied with, the dust problem will be completely solved. That little dust is now collected through the straight pipes and cboked main duct passes through a fan and is delivered into a tank io feet in diameter by 6 feet high, which is about 30 feet away from the mill* The top of this tank is wide open, so that If the wind is in one direction, it blows the dust back into the plant, while If It is in the other direction, the dust descends on the mess and men's camps. It will bave to be collected and settled at this point by means of a spray tower off a bag.luuse or a combination of both. Zn general, the elimination of dust has been treated as an after-thought which is wrong. Anyone- construct ing a dry treatment plant of any description oust realise that dugt control is tbe major principle around which the T-st t.b-e plant le designed. * s I; ] * Some trouble baa been caused in the mill due to electric motors burning out, which is probably largely attributable to the dusty conditions of operation. Very fine dust gets into the windings of the motors and forms on them a coating of appreciable thickness. Since the duat'is a poor conductor, the motors tend to overheat, so that if a peak load be placed on an overheated motor, due to a surge of feed, that motor may easily burn out. The alleviation of dusty conditions is therefore likely to assist in this respect, quite apart from the fact that it will mean that working conditions for the men will be q^uch more tolerable. You may have noticed from the flowsheet that Ho. 3 is the only grade of fibre being produced. As far as possible, the crude ore.brought to the mill is*of this grade only, but no matter bow carefully it is picked, it oust always contain-eome of both Ho. 1 and.Ho. 2 grades, which axe not at present separated, but go into the bags and are sold as Ho. 3 grade. I have asked Ur. Stubbs why the higher grades have not been separated and stockpiled, eeelng that the major costs of fine crushing have already been borne to make possible the extraction . of lb. 3 grade. Els reply was that be had been instructed from Perth not to collect the higher grades since there is little demand, for them, and that this applies particularly to the K>.. 2 grade, which is also more difficult to collect than the 21b 1. He further stated that there is a email but spasmodic market for So. 1, and that odd small lota have been sent avray, and also- that he could, separate this grade in the mill by "simply pressing a button" to use his own words. This policy seems to me to be shortsighted in the extreme, and indefensible on' any grounds whatever. Instead of letting the Ho. 1 grade go out in the cheaper Ho. 3 grade, It appears that it could be collected and stockpiled at a cost of a couple of shillings a bag. Probably a wire will be received at some future date-for. a consignment of Ho. 1 grade, and special arrangements will have to be made to get it, whereas it `could be building up every time the plant runs, if the trouble were taken to collect it. I have noted on the flow sheet the position at which the collection of Ho. 1 grade could be made. During the period of our visit,, the mill feed seemed to be somewhat poor, averaging about fibre, -which is lower than is desirable. If, however, the feed exceeds 2% fibre, a great deal of trouble.is experienced with the.screens and cleaning arrange- . raente. Technically the object should be to strive for. a plant which will handle' a much richer, feed,-since the gangue is of more than average hardness and imposes severe wear on all surfaces with which it comes in contact. The optimum feed'with the present set up is considered to be from SO to 2%, and the masdmum output is put at 130 tons per month working one shift ohly. The figures quoted at the beginning of thl.s section agree as far as feed is concerned, but indicate that a higher output should be possible, though even the lower figure has not yet been approached in the best month (July) which gave a production of only 96 tons. It. appears that pressure from Perth office for Increased production with second hand gear poorly erected, are the root causes of poor mill results. Clearly, a-plant can't be in pro duction and under repair at the same time, but I am of the opinion that it would have paid to have shut the plant down months ago, for a fortnight, and put every possible man onto it tc correct as many faults as could be done in the time, and so eliminate some of the lost time. If it were then run for the second half of the month, it would have treated as much ore as it did when running the whole month before correction. In short, the grinding of the last revolution out -of any plant bwftrTB -repair, causes both a loss of production and increased costs. Z6 /V/ The pl&at was, however, forced to dose down on the 6th Instant due to the fact that the shells of the second set of rolls were worn out, and one of the brasses was cut right out. Another 'set of shells is expected, but the exact date of arrival is not known. . During the waiting period eome essential alterations are-to be made, and have already been put In hand. The fan which sucks material from the top deck of the double deck vibrating screen and delivers it to the cydUne, has been removed and put on the other side of the cydone* The rotor had to be refaced and rebalanced every few days owing to the abrasive action of the gangue. The new arrangement will- mean that this wear will be eliminated since the material will so longer peee through the fan. The rolls referred to above have been entirely removed and will be fitted with a new shaft,, bearings and shells, and set up higher on their foundations, which will out out spillage at the Niagara screen which causes dust and lost time for removal. These rolls are too small for the job, and should be replaced with a larger set. Screens are being repaired and duet collection apparatus re-designed. A bln and large cracker are to be placed in front of the existing email primary cracker so that feed will be automatic which will eliminate some lost time and fluctuations of feed. A picking table is also to be installed so that barren rock, can be sorted from the feed, which will decrease uselees wear on machines. The last two items will probably not.be added during the'present shut down since the time will be too abort. Such improvements, though beneficial as far as decreasing lost.time and therefore costa, cannot eliminate inherent faults in mill design. The plant bae been erected on a perfectly flat eite built up at a considerable cost in time and money, in a location which is elmoet entirely made up of steep slopes, one of which should have been selected for a mill site*1 The result is that in quite a small mill housed in a.building about 8q ft. by 30 ft., we have no less than nine separate conveyors* Again, since the rock to be. handled is so hard, much wear ie to be expected and its effects will be felt-particularly on second hand machinery. This meane that provision must be mad.e for the rapid changing of worn parts, but this is now impossible because the machines have been cramped together so'that they, are hard to get at. A brief summary of this section on milling follows. The plant is-a very poor affair in which everything has been mistakenly sacrificed in the name of production. The output could be greatly Improved, at the cost of temporary loss of production/ if time were allowed for obvious faults to be corrected in a workmanlike'manner. Owing to faults in design' and poor machinery,- this plant will probably never be made to produce continuously, at or near its, theoretical maximum out put. Xf a large increase in production is required, an entirely new mill of reasonable design and construction will be necessary. Notwithstanding its present condition the plant is able to cope with mine production which is quite low, but if it is to be stepped up, the plant will become a hop el ess'bottleneck. \ [ *v PLOW SKEET 0? V. R. A. T. KILL, Jaw -CxacKer 12" x 10* .1 Belt Conveyor Du fit Dust .Traylor Crusher 20* ( Belt Conveyor 1 Botex Screen . Si ngle deck Undersize Oversize No* 1 Grade fibre can be taken off here. Only one deck of the screen ie now effectively ueed.' Belt Conveyor --* t1 p30' Belt Conveyor l P-n Waste Duirp -Dust r \ - ----- Botex Screen double deck Undersize I Belt Conveyor Overeize h 20" x 12" Rolls oil''tor Bel t Cb nveyo r Vibrating Screen Single Deck, Undersize Wash WaterWaste Pump. JSalL Oversize Hammer^ill Belt Conveyor Vibrating Screen 2 deck I T^o^p--D1 llelck -- Oversize Undersize Light'particles Pan i Cyclone Heavy particles 'hv ~*r-: '.V' . Second ^ Deck Overeize Undersize Duet Coarse particles ' Vibrating Screen. Single Deck light particles Heavy particles Belt Co nveyo r *1 Waste Duop A Undersize ^Wasfa Water Waste Dump Oversize iJn Cyclone T Duet Troooel P^n Cyclone I__ Dust Coarse particles I Belt Conveyor 1st Undersize 2nd Undersize Oversize to begs -------.. ,J s. 3-S-rade libre. 2* pi? o* m a H *- *d A 9 t * H -} a 0< s 3 o -- 3 '* H H < 0a 3 o H rt- 1 1 III *P; P* 5 H *Jo h- m A H HN ' Ma- a AW pp Pg r*- *a A hw A -A V w a^ om- aB> a cok 8* -Aa . io . U\OD>S Os 8co 4>. HHM . CD ` . ii -i.i- ^ U POs f* r* . *. H Sfo'.. I4oOks . OH a * S' A s4ok HM> . Vl M* _ o o? VI ^ uV>I KAo' so K v iva . i i .A2 . M 0&M3* 4k . l 1 . .*>>3 gOv>os , C V o, '.. V :*s . . iff .03 O ->4 . SO .*s3 . H VM *\ -4M IOik OD VI , Os H lo O4sk ;u4#k Vl 03 00 VI vUJi Mo S Oj o *3 3 Si S' SVH4Okl fAtCi|t . 4k O ^>3 3 3 10-0 O' 4kft> H M H vgg, Vl Vj u * * *V *ms3 1 1 u s4k : s4k HH fo hos fProo .-o - 4k : 'ySi OyJi . Os M* rwS(oOfl' i_4OokS -o j < ,u o &% 2 s vi-rDo o' h A w fe Vl 9<* /3 !li ||IIMl ^ W W KBBW W BPIW W W W !WIUUWiiW>tl iPW BgBiliW IW aW W W IIW W W ^ '/M These figures are taken front an extract of costs supplied *to me by lr. Hockley, wbo gave os to understand that book-keeping -methods at the mine are such that they were only arrived at after considerable difficulty, and are not guaranteed to be of the usual accuracy that can be got from a veil kept set of books. Ur. Hockley's figures have been reduced to shillings and decimal points of a shilling, and his average costs omitted, as they are not required for the purposes of the examination to follow. He has noted as follows:- "The - eign means not shown separately. * "Figures represent expenses to produce fibre to loading .point on mine. " "Figures do not Include depreciation." "Figures refer to long tons of. ore, but short tons of Fibre. " I understand then, that the figures take no account of Perth office expenses, capital expenditure, or depreciation, but represent the actual cash spent on production for such items as labour, fuel for engines, and* similar expendable stores. Zt is to^-be remembered that the figures in the table relate to tons of ore sent to the mill, aod'that this ore.is won by sorting from a larger mass of broken rock. We can reduce the costs shown to tons of rock broken so that they can be compared with other types of mining; for the essence of any mining opera tion is. the breaking ofrock at- the lowest possible cost. At Yampire Gorge, the 450 tons of ore'was produced both by mining from the gorge face and by underground mining, but no record has apparently been kept of the amounts produced separately by either method. At the time of our visit, six parties were producing from the benches, but only.one from underground. Some of the bench parties were assisted by the bulldozer, which disposed of their waste rock quickly and cheaply, while others disposed of their waste by band, and the proportion of fibre produced from the benches was high. I would estimate that in July, probably 400 tons came.from the benches, and the remaining 50. tons from underground. On the benches^ about l6 feet thickness of rock was broken, of.which 2 feet represented fibre bearing ore, while underground the same amount of ore came from the mining of a thickness of 8 feet. '-Thus the 400. tons of ore from benches' came . from the freaking of 3330 tons of rock, and the 50 tons of under ground ore was derived from 200 tone of' rock. At the Wittenoom Gorge, or Walters* leases, $6 tons of'ore were got from both methods, and since no bulldozer is available for removing waste rock from benches, it-is. done by hand, so' that the ratio of ore produced from benching as against under ground is not nearly-so high as it is at Yampire. I would put it at not more than 3 to 1, which means that 72 tons of ore came from.the benches and 24 tons from underground. The figures for ratio of ore to rock broken are also slightly different as the 2 feet thickness of fibre bearing rock can be got underground from a mining width of 7 feet, as against 8 feet at Yampire, while the 16 foot maximum remains the same. The 72 tons of ore from the benches came from 576 tons of rock, and the 24 tons from underground came from 84 tons of rock. Th.e following examination of costs will be confined to the figures for July, since they are the most complete and'represent the best monthly performance to date. They can j.w ba act-out in th following manner:- ' JULY. 1945. Hi nine?. Yempire Benching................. Underground.......... Walters A Benching................. Underground.......... Hilling. Yampire........................ Walters...................... Ore Traneoort. Yampire....................... Walters........................ Fibre Tranroort... Tons Rock Ore. Fibre 3200 400 64 200 50 8 576 72 18 94 24 6 450 72 '96 24 450 72 96 24 96 Shillings per ton. Rack Ore Fibre. 10.3 ?2.7 520.2 20.7 82.7 520.2 27.2 217.9 53*7 62.3 217.9 853.7 4.9 37.4 234.8 5.4 37 i 4 146.5 .9 4.4. 6.7 42.6 30.0 117 .'5 .4 2.8 .15.8 Hr. Blockley's figures covering mining are'given under the heading of development and extraction -which are normally separated. It -is *not' easy to-define development and extraction in the case of benching from a-free gorge faie, but it should be easy for the underground workings. Strictly speaking, all underground work done to date should be classed as development. In general, the system of recording at the mine seems to make the accurate determ ination of these items separately a waste of time. The figures show that though rock is broken from the bench more cheaply than from underground, the costs per ton of ore and fibre are the same* The figures of 82.7 shillings and 217*9 shillings per ton of ore really represent average costs of pro duction by both benching and underground methods, but as no- record has been kept of the tonnage produced by each method, an examination of costs to see whether the economical limit of benching has been reached is impossible. The limit is postulated in the figures at about 2-to 1, and is the observable limit beyond which'the Hanager has apparently decided that he cannot go before resorting to underground mining, with which I disagree entirely. /# !>' in Kim posts. Bencbl ng. At Yampire the cost was 10.3s.'per ton of rock broken, and 27.2a. per ton at Walters', and the difference is almost entirely accounted for by the use of the tractor and bulldozer at Yampire Gorge to remove waste rock after it has been broken* The machine pushes the broken rock over the edge of the bench, and can handle slabs of the size that would require secondary blasting if they had to be disposed of by hand* Sven at Yampire the tractor cannot reach all of the working faces and as many as four of them are still being worked by hand* At Valters' leases, all faces are entirely band worked. At times the tractor is out of operation for repairs, so that all faces at Yampire are on occasion hand worked* Clearly, the advantages of modern earth moving equipment are demonstrated here, and if all disposal were done by these means costs could be greatly reduced. The advantages of these machines would be part icularly great in large scale benching methods as suggested, which could not be very well carried out without them. At least one more bulldozer of the largest eixe should he put to work immed iately, and iflong blast holes are to be used, two more bulldozers would be necessary. Costs can oily be cut by further capital expenditure. Such economies will greatly Increase the ratio of overburden that can be removed, and thus bring large tonnages of ore into- the more straightforward field of benching. Other factors in favour of benching are that almoot no development ia required and no ore' is left in pillars as'will have to be done to a more or less extent with any underground method* Once the method of benching is established, together with its economics based on sound book-keeping, the operator can tell after a few minutes examination whether a certain.fall will pay to strip or not. Benching on a large scale can only be undertaken in locations favourable to the rapid dispo.sal of'waste, that is where, the fibre seams are high above the. bottom of the gorge. The deposit near the mill at Yampire is dome shaped and dips below the floor of the gorge-at either end'ao that near.these points disposal would become difficult. In'this respect the deposit .further down the gorge appears more favourable. ! : ! ** Underground. At Yampire the cost was 20*7e. per ton of rock broken, and 62.3s. at-Valters,' and it is difficult, to see why the difference should.be so great. At both places the dirt is bogged by hand, into trucks and dumped over- the edge of the bench, since the proposed scraping system* lias not yet been put into operation at Yampire Gorge* The Gorges are steeper, the ground tighter, and supervision is more difficult at Valters, but these disadvantages are insufficient to cause the breaking of rock to cost three times as much as by similar .methods at Yampire* Allowing that all work to date is development, it is reasonable to assume that when stoplng is started the costs will be less than they have been, but Z have pointed out elsewhere that a large proportion of the ore already developed will have to be left in pillars for eaf etys-sake, eo that if the present methods are continued, the drop in cost when stoping starts is not likely to be more than two or three shillings per ton under existing conditions* Sed uction of costs can be brought about by increased scale and'the use of mine car loaders in place of hand methods, oarticularly in-development faces* Uodern rock drills with automatic feed and 4,1 withdrawal will also save time and money in underground methods for it must be remembered that all dirt will be broken'by machines rigged -o-a hers and not -a single sinker machine with its rapid steel changing advantages, will be required. Areas to be mined J v *3Z Will eventually be extensive so that transport of supplies will ^edome a consideration* Machine steel will be one of the princi pal items under tbls beading, and the economics of the use of rip or Jack bits In place of conventional steel will need to be investigated. i MgJjXBB COSTS Ore from all sources was costing 37*4s* per ton to mill, " but costs per ton of fibre were considerably lees for Valters ore than for Vampire, because for the month of July the grade of tbe former ore was much higher, though it is to be noted that, in August, tbe grades, and therefore milling costs, were roughly the same' These costs include bags at 44e* per short ton of fibre, which'should be capable of reduction* Bags used are new corn* sacks which are now apparently kept by the buyer* They contain a maximum of 80 lbs* of fibre, so that it takes about 26 of them to make .a short ton* Arrangements have now been made for them to be returned, and it is expected that they may be used about lour times before being disoarded* To reduce bagging costs, it was proposed to consign the fibre in bales like wool, but the buyers objected. To'get Go lb's* of fibre into a eornsack requires constant ramsit^, which is at present done by hand,-and is a full-time job for one man while the mill is operating, Vhen they leave the mine the bags are well distended, but Z am informed that when they arrive in Sydney they are quite flat, and as much fibre again could be got into them* It therefore seems that a mechanical type of press would be an advantage in enabling eay, 120 lbs.,, to be put in one bag*. It should be possible to reduce bagging costs by % The first essential in decreasing milling costs is to increase the. tonnage handled thus reducing overhead expenses, but this cannot be done.until many faults have been remedied, and mainten ance reduced. Tbe longer these improvements are delayed, the more money will go- down the sink. The installation of the bin and Bo88 feeder will be the next greatest money saver since it will give- a steady feed, .and thereby both greater capacity and efficiency* Bust control will also cut milling costs by decreas ing wear on bearings and increasing-the efficiency of the mill operators themselves* Hand sorting is to'be tried and should eliminate some waste-rock. X regard the putting of'the mill in order as the Bo* l priority on the job*- It has been a great money waster, and yet its faults are obvious to everyone who has had anything to do with it* Their eradication is simple and results of improvements are immediately determinable, which Is not so in the ease of alterations in mining methods* I A capacity of at least 1,930 tons of ore per month le a reasonable expectation from tbs present mill after correction of the faults enumerated* i ORB TRANSPORT. Costs 6*7s. per ton of ore at Vampire and 30s. per ton at Valters, f This work is done on contract by & man who possesses the ody good truck on the job* At Vampire, tbe truck passes right along the bench that has been cleared by the bulldozer and picks up the ore at the worklng faces* Vbere hand mining is in vogue, the e-re is^-eent-ftovm a slide to the bottom of the gorge and is picked, up from here by the truck. The truck dumps all ore for hand feeding to .the mill cracker, and the maximum haul is now less than half a ;j ^1 M :2 m\ ^ ft' At Valters' the ore is .sent from the benches to the bottom of the gorge by flying fox and is dumped on the ground from where the contractor loads it by hand into the truck. It is carted 35 miles to Ysuplre and then egaln dumped about a quarter of a mile from the plant until it can be treated, when it is hand loaded into the truck and dumped at the cracker site. Costs could be cut by using bins instead of dumping on the ground. Snail ones of bush timber would lave paid for themselves over and over again. FIBRE TRANSPORT . This cost i8l5*&?e* ton of fibre from all sources. Fibre is bagged as it comes from the mill and is stacked nearby. It is later removed to ' the opposite'side of-the gorge to the point where the Boeboume transports load and unload. After being weighed here, it is again stacked and loaded by hand when the transport arrives. A site'is now being built up at the mill itself, where the bags will be weighed and stacked and then loaded direct to transports. . This cost should thus be cut to about 5a per ton of fibre for branding, sewing, weighing and stacking begged fibre. .. COMPARISON OF Y.AMPIBS & WALTERS COSTS JULY. 1945/ * Shillings Shillings ' Shillings . Per ton of Bock. Per Ton of Ore Per Ton of Fibre Yampire Walters Yampire Welters Yampire Walters Uining.................. Milling................ Ore Transport.. F'bre Transport- 10.3 4.9 .9 .4 31.7 5.4 4.4 .4 62.7 6.7 2.0 217.9 37.4 30.6 2.8 520 . 2 234.6 42.6 . 15.8 653.7 146.5 117. j 15.8. 16.5 41.9 129.6 .`288.1 * 813.4- 1133-V 16/6 .2.1.9 6, 9.10 14.8.2 40.13.2 56.13.7 It is plain that mining accounts largely for the high cost of production at Valters* leases* Mechanisation and better mining methods would reduce costs here to about the same .extent as at Yampire if the scale of operations were similar. The coet of ore transport however, cannot be reduced to any .extent, since the price is 7d. per yard per mile, or approximately 4-fcdi per ton mile which is very low for the north Vest. This means that fibre from Yfelters* will always cost 3*15* 0 per ton more than from Yampire under present conditions. It is being' carted 35 miles to the Company's mill, from a point within 1 mile of C.S.R. (s mill. Ur. Stubbs tells me that the mill in Yampire Gorge is only a pilot plant and the Intention is to erect another mill at Walters, though he did not say how this v/as to be financed. The ob3ec^ 'O'T "ttfi.s is to do away with carting, and to get the benefit of the better grade of ore at Walters'. On a mining field m Ib'f this magnitude and nature the erection within one mile of each other, of two separate oilla-by two different Companies is as economically absurd as la the carting of ore from a point one mile from one mill, 35 miles to another mill. Ur. Stubbs informs me that the intention now is to take the Browett and Llndley compressor and the Vickers Betters Diesel Engine and erect them to supply air at Valters' leases, where air is now being furnished by'the Dorman Ricardo Portable and the Holman compressor. The Browett and Llndley machine wee to hare -been erected at Yampire and excavations for the foundations are atfsost completed. If this move is carried out, Yampire Gorge is dependent for its air on up to four email machines, to wit, the Dorman Ricardo Portable ( 150 c.^.m.), the Holman-Portable (l^O c. f.m.), the Broome and Wade (220 c. f.m.) and the Holman (220 c. f.m.). To leave Yampire, which has supplied the hulk of the production to date, dependent for its sir on such a doubt ful array of 6mell units, seems quite senseless. Ore from the benches at Walters is sent to the bottom of the Gorge in flying foxes, and recently a miner lost his life when the ascending bucket hit him. This was an unfortunate accident, and was caused by the deceased turning the brake wheel the wrong way and cot getting clear of the bucket as the shouted warning of his -brother, who was working with him, advised him to do. The fox la now being replaced by rails and skips at considerable expense, and with the idea that they are safer. I fail to eee why the flying fox should not be just as safe If operated with ordinary care. The appliance iteelf is quite & solid affair with about half inch steei cables, and is a vast improvement on the foxes with which all fibre was lowered without mishap omy a couple of years ago. These contraptions consisted mostly of old petrol drums with a few strands of fencing wire in-placeof the cable. ; i The freight on the compressor and`engine, excavation and pouring of foundations, erection of engine house, engine, compressor, 1 and cooling tower, together with the completion of the rails up* j the side of the Gorge,' will represent a capital outlay of about 1 2,000. In view of the urgent need to recondition the mill at Yampire, and the fact that' nobody on the job has any clear idea j of competent mining practice, this expenditure is entirely un- ; warranted. The outlay of this money at the present time will only ' ; help to perpetuate the costly, errors that have already been made at. Yampire, at an even greater cost as is indicated by the pro- 1 ductlon figures. The object should be to cut both mining and I milling costs immediately, and to this end I would Immediately doae down Walters' leases, and concentrate on Yampire, at least ** until such time as a clearly defined mining programme and costing system have been established at the latter place* ' Zt is admitted that Walters* leases possess certain advantages, the principal of which is that a higher percentage of fibre and a better proportion of longer fibre can be got from them, but the Company is not'in a position to be able to make use of them. The longer fibre la of no importance at the present time since there is no sale for it, end it la not even being recovered from present mill feed. If a survey is made to see what fibre can be got by better benching methods, Valters1 leases should be included, because there is more room for rapid .disposal of large quantitiesof waste rock, and to date no structures of a permanent nature have been erected below the facee which would be damaged by flying rocks. . yisre TO FRELfAlTTLB CHARGES. Costs i ncurred .in getting the fibre from the juine to Premantle are as below:- 1 ? /?<> The figures were supplied by the Company and are for abort tons of fibre. Tbe road transport to Foint Sampson is.done by tbe moat modern trucks available. These are petrol driven Whites and are almost new. With trailer they tfake 8 load of 10 tons of fibre over a road which ie in good order, but baa a few very steep hills on it. There is a poe'sibility that the distance to Doebourne could he shortened by about 40 miles by the construction of a new section through extremely rough country, but this vork is not likely to be put in hand for a long time to come, since a very large eum of money has been .spent on the roads in tU s area over the past two years. A slight reduction in freight may be brought about by larger output and the uae of Lieeel trucks, but it is clear that the figure of 4.1 pence per ton mile is cheap in an Isolated area like the Itorth West. The seme applies to the shipping figure of something more than a halfpenny per ton mile, and X note from the file that efforts to have this figure reduced were unavailing. In general the above figures axe unlikely to be very substantially reduced in the near future, and Improvements in costs must he sought at the mine, as has been noted .by Kr. Telfer. XTERE REPO VERY Losses of the eought after mineral occur in any mining opera tion, principally in the treatment proceeees, and to a smaller extent in the extraction of- ore from the mine. The Yampire mill has an efficiency of about 85S, end it is estimated that about % of ore Is lost in mining operations, and the following tables are based on these figuree 1. Kill Recoveries. Yampire . Benching Underground Walters Eendiing Underground Ore Fibre Milled Fibre Recovered Fibre in Ore Lost L.T. 400 50 S. T. 64 8 L.T. 57.1 14.3 7.1 14.3 L.T. 67.3 8.4 % 16.8 16.8 L.T. ' 10.2 1.3 72 16 16.1 22. 3 16.9 26. 3 2.8 24 6 -5.4 22..i1 6.31 26.3 1 , 0 - 1 'g- 546 _i------- 96 &5.7 15*7 ICO. 9 18. 5 15-2 r. > 36 /57 2. Mine Recoveries. Bock Ore Mi ned Recovered 'L. T. L.T. Ore in Itck L.T. % Ore Fibre Lo 8t in Lo et Ore L.T. L.T. Yadfcire Benching Underground Valters Benching Underground 3200 400 12.5 421 , 13.2 200 56 25.0 52.6 26.4 a2.6, 16.8 16.fa 3*5 .4 % 72 12.5 24 26.6 75-6 13.2 250 3D.1 4060 546 13.5 574.7 14.2 3.8 1*3 28.7 26.3 26.3 lfa.5 1.0 *3 5*2 From these two tables, a third can be taken showing total losses and aoounte of fibre in situ. 3. Fibre Losses. Fibre. jj'rom ro c& L.T. % Fibre Losses. Mill Mine Total L.T. L.T. L.T. Fibre in Bo ck L.T. % Y&mpire Benching Undergro und Waltere Benching Underground 57.1 1.8 7-1 3*6 16.1 2.8 5*4 6.4 10.2 3*5 1*3 .4 2.8 1.0 *9 3 13*7 1.7 3.8 1.2 70.8 2.2 8. 4.4 19.9 3*5 6.6 7.9 85*7 2.1 15*2 5*2 20.4 106.1 2.6 S.T. = Short Tons. L.T. * long Tons. Kill Recovery. The Dill feed fox the month of July, 1945, contained 100.9. tons of fibre of all grades, of which, 15*2 tons was lost in tailings. This is not as serious as it would appear at first sight, for it should be recalled that only 6. 3 grade was pro duced, there being no oarket for Grades 1, 2 or 4. fiorDelly grades 1 and 2 ere taken off at an earlier stage than grade 3 as the air current can pick than up after less fiberisation, and therefore lees damage to the fibres. They are now being picked up with grade 3 after fairly complete fiber! sing, which means that their recovery is high with some small lose due to damaged fibres. Fiberisation is at present adequate for the more or less complete recovery of everything up to Grade 3, but not for Grade 4, which therefore goes out onto the dump, and forma the largest percentag-e of the 15.2 tone lo-et. VI > /SI ^ Though a good plant could he expected to give a sore efficient recovery of all grades than this one, the losses diown above are not worth worrying about until reasonable operation of the plant on a throughput basis is assumed, and a demand for grade 4 fibre comes to hand. Mill fibre losses will be slightly increased when hand picking is introduced, since even a careful workman may throw out a large stone with a small amount of fibre in it. HI ne Recovery. bth rock and fibre bearing ore are horizontally bedded and Wreak into flat slabs when fired. Pi ring, however, must be done separately if maximum recovery of ore is required, and this is a disadvantage to be constantly faced, particularly in underground mining methods, where it will cause loss of speed in both develop ment and etoping. Losses of-fibre oocur in both firing and hand sorting, but with care they should not exceed %t and may be much less, if faces were broken out.in one firing as in gold mining, the recovery would be very low, the longer grades practically all destroyed, andthe sorting would become laborious. The type of cut used in firing development faces will have some bearing on this matter. Centre cuts often blow the collars off of nearby holes which'would cause appreciable fibre loss in places where there are bands of fibre on both the .top and bottoms of the drive, as happens in the fampire leases, Wirkmen on contract will shoot the fibre out to save* time rather than bar it out at extra effort. Barring out of the fibre givesrise to the minimum losses but there will be relatively few occasions on which it can be used. Sven after shooting the surrounding rock away, the fibre bands are often quite intact. This is noticeable after a few feet beyond the original weathered gorge face, when the rock is fresh and compact. MAHTSTTHG Here we are faced with the most important single factor in the large scale development of the blue asbestos deposits of this State. Briefly the position is that large overseas combines have had absolute control of the world's markets at least up till the time the war broke out. Buyers have been cautious about going outside of the combine for their requirements to a producer whose future output is doubtful, as if they are forced back on the large producers they will probably, get a poor deal. The new .producer is faced with a deadlock, since-the buyer wants to be sure of continued supplies before he will give an order, and the 'producer wants a large order before he will go to the expense of erecting machinery and starting mining. Since the combine has large stocks available at all times the new producer must give way and conform to the potential buyers demands, Normally he must undertake large expenditure and be prepared to stockpile fibre until he has considerable reserves. The war moderated these conditions to a large extent since asbestos became a strategic mineral, and as shipping was not available tbe over seas firm8 were unable to get their product into Australia to the usual extent. Tbe war time conditions were responsible for tbe present operations in the Hemersley Ranges and the object now should be to retain and expand* tbe advantage gained during the war years. The coming of peace is likely to bring with it the same conditions of marketing that existed before the war, that is, lower prices and tighter markets with the larger producers prepared to indulge in price war--fare to equeeze out the new man. It has been said that to overcome this possibility, the Government could put a tax on imported asbestos. Future con ditions of world trade are now being decided and are not yet Vsiv,will not he greatly -af e-ctad -by the req-uA-remenia .,f a small part of. a nation of seven million people. For example iHa;..::--..Great.Britain may request Australia to allow free entry'to all .-.Canadian and Cape Blue Fibre that we can abamrb, in return for * > /b'3 ^PPvbich she would guarantee to take all surplus wheat from us at a fixed price satisfactory to our farmers* Such an arrangement is not beyond the bounds of possibility and would be of immense benefit to Australia as a whole, but would not brighten the future prospects of the North Vest of this State* In short future trade agreements cannot be foretold at this stage. The desirability of accumulating stocks of fibre has been referred to and on it is based my criticism of the selling of 1 and 2 grades with No. 3, and making no attempt at separate recovery after having met the major expenditure Involved; that of fine crushing. I was under the impression that C.S*R were accumulating their current production for future use in their Building Material Division, but this appears to be incorrect. Ur. Broadhurst of the C.S.R., who was managing the Australian Blue Asbestos Company while Kr. Hancock was on holiday, told me that they had no accumulated stock and were unable to comply with orders. I have noted from the file that Vunderlichs have given an order for a large consignment and that Indian buyers are en. quiring, but that an export license has not yet been arranged on behalf of the l&tter buyer* From the producers angle, a long term contract provides th* best stimulus to production, and it would be interesting to know the reactions of both of the above '^'''buyers to the suggestion of such a contract, in place of large orders, at indefinite intervals* One cannot get away from the feeling that they are at present making use of this state's producers and will probably go back to the combine as soon as possible* In support of his application for further assistance Hr. Faye has advanced as one of his principle reasons, the plea that he does not want to lose markets so hardly, won. I am of the opinion that though hardly won, they are lightly held* It seems to me that the marketing field is one in which the Government could render some assistance. The highest authority should inspire the greatest confidence and should be brought to bear,, particularly in such cases as Import licenses, which are soley a Government function* It has been suggested that the financing of stockpiling be done by the Government, but this would require a large sum of money, for which Federal assistance would probably have to be sought. The use of blue fibre in place of white in manufacture of asbestos board seems to give some promise of increased marketing, though the position is yet to be clarified* It appears that some manufacturers claim that It is better in some respects than white, while others* say that it is quite useless. One thing must be borne in mind by those interested in asbestos production, and plans for the future must be based on it. It is, that the present prices will show a sharp decline in the near future. This will take place within a few months in my opinion, and I expect the drop to be of the order of one third. Generally, it seems that at the moment the demand exceeds the supply, at a price-favourable to the producers, even though they are unable to make use of it at present, but the future will probably bring less favourable conditions. It is suggested that the largest Australian consumers be approached and requested to name the conditions under which they would .give Australian prod users -a .long term contrast, say not less than seven years, for the whole of their requirements, the contract to come into jforce two years hence, which would allow time for expansion of/.production to the required dimensions. i i ' 3* > "beii terms would no doubt be stiff, but if the stlffest of terms bring a guaranteed market, they are preferable to the hand to mouth existence of' the past. This probing of possibilities for the future would at least give us some idea of what we are up against, but right now every body i8 completely in the dark. It should be undertaken immed iately and is likely to be treated seriously if it emanated from the_Governaent. Tbs quality and quantity of the fibre available 'i such that if it is exploited along the right lines, it will stand the toughest set of conditions that any buyer could frame. Recently an engineer said to be representing consumers apparently made a fairly close inspection of the mines. Zf I remember rightly, hie name is Stroud, and one must assume that his report to his mentors will remark on the Inadequate handling of the production side to date,-which will cause a disinterested attitude on the pert of potential buyers, which is a great pity, but will continue Just so long as people ignorant of the arte of mining continue to have charge of the project, v ua POLICIES. The policy of Australian Hines Management and Secretariat wto, I am told, manage this undertaking on behalf of Austoac, a de Bernales family concern, seems to me to be beyond comprehension, and without a vestige of logic. They have a chief Himng Engineer, and yet the mining side of -the business is in a hopeless mess. They also have a Mechan ical Engineer, and the mill is a nightmare of maintenance problems, and a menace to safety. There seems to be an aocountant but cot the elements of a costing system, and there is a surveyor, hut almost nothing is known of quantities of ore available for bench ing. Some of these people pay periodic visits by plans to the mine for not more than a day or two* I asked Hr. Stubbs why. the former two officials could not spend a period of say several weeks with him, end help to straighten things up. They are always too busy with work on another of the Group's mines, and yet Hr* Pays claims when he wants a loan that it is of very great import ance that the North Vest be populated through*the establishment of the asbestos industry, which is a case of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds.. Zt surely Is important to populate the North Vest and establish a new industry which will benefit the whole.of Australia, and just as surely could these busy officers devote a few weeks of their time to the cause, at the expense of-the other mines which are mostly gold, and are well established already. i j i- ^ ?_ They appoint as Manager, a man who had never seen an asbestos r. mine, and had no experience whatever of mining operations and methods t T and le&ve him to bis own devices to extract ore by underground ' f* methods in a flat bedded, hard, siliceous ore body, an operation that has rarely been performed on a large scale in Australia. This man. Mr. Stubbs, seems to be the only genuine one of them all, and has worked like two men to get the thing going to the beet of his ability. In return for this he is continually badgered from Perth for more production, though his fortnightly reports, copies of which I have read, ehould tell the tale of mill maintenance problems to anyone. He is supposed to keep costs within bounds, but has not the faintest idea of what some things are costing as Invoices are seldom sent to him. I noticed that he had a fresh copy of the inventory supplied to us for the purposes of this investigation and he wrote to Perth Office protesting that such items as a 14. jig entered at 650. made mm look a fool. What can one think of the two inventories In which prices for the same article are doubled or halved or vice versa, and on which everything possible is duplicated? By what process of logic are the items listed at the mine by the man responsible for their use, but priced in Perth by someone who has obviously never even seen some of them? Mr. Pays claims that gear has been obtained from Associate Companies at reduced rates. The International Utility came from the Kalgoorlie lb undry, an associate company, and is about a 1935 model, and had done more than 100,000 miles. Zt is shown on the Inventory at 300. and arrived on the job about laeWanuary when it could not possibly have been worth more than and is now worth about 50. I suspect that the price of 3PO* is contrary to National Security Regulations. Ibur new sets of conveyor head and tail pulleys with shafts and bearings are charged at 500. per set. They are new and probably came from Kalgoorlie foundry, but are much too heavy fox requirements at Vampire, and could rot have cost the price shown. They are rot necessary since there are two other spare second hand sets on The 3o"b. I In ay view the inventory Is & complete fabrication, for which this Department is entitled to some explanation. Whether it was done deliberately orthxough gross carelessness makes no difference, for people who conduct their affairs in either manner are not worthy of a moment's consideration. There is probably a get of books somewhere in the Perth office of the Company, which would tell the true etory, and it would be interesting if hr. i&ockley could examine them. In any case, he should be instructed to check up on the itemcf 4,500 for plant buildings, freight and cartage from Yinnletharra, if he has not already done so. These -i^ems came from a Government source, and records of their sale should be available* The shortcomings of the whole undertaking quite obviously originate in the Perth office of the Company. Shortage of Van- power and shipping difficulties are made to cover a multitude of sins. They are very real problems in the Horth West. The inter val between boats has been as high as sixteen weeks, and good , miners are scarce even in peace time, as they prefer the amenities of places like Kalgoorlie, to the crudities of Yampire Gorge* Leek of manpower is the major reason why instead of being hurried a job should be properly done in the first place, thus reducing maintenance, and the want of shipping cannot be made to explain why information is with-held from the Manager, or why the field officers attached to Perth office cannot stay on the mine long { enough to straighten out some of the mistakes which are ohvlous to the Least of the workmen. In dealing with applications for assistance by this Depart ment, I have always based my'recommendations on the principle that it is better to lend money to an honest man with a fair show, than to a rogue with a first class one. In this case we are dealing with a proposition of uncertain future, operated by Interests who have shown by their- handling of* the present application and the expenditure of -the 25,000. that they are unreliable. Ahyone who lends money under these circumstances is playing with fire and must expect to get burnt. There are however exceptions to every rule, and the preeent application could under some circumstances provide the exception to my general rule. If the establishment of the asbestos industry could be given a reasonable chance of success by the granting of a subsidy as applied for, I would not hesitate to recommend it-even though I knew the money would never be recoverable. Hr. Telfer has expressed disagreement in principle with the idea of a subsidy, with which I concur, particularly in the present instance. Ye are asked to subsidise weak policy, poor methods of production, and inexperience, which would be throwing money away. If such a subsidy is granted to the present applicants it will be immediately claimed by C.S.R. and we would have very little grounds for equitable refusal. I am not convinced of tbe good, faith of the present applicants and they have apparently neither the experience nor the tenacity to overcome their present difficulties. Their solution of the problem takes tbe line of least resistance, for if someone can be persuaded to put up the money, they can carry on for a time at least, with the same slovenly methods, but with even less chance of ultio&te financial success. It would be folly to grant any subsidy at the present stage, and any Industry that requests a subsidy should automatically accept the onus of proof that it is being carried on at the maximum efficiency before applying for such subsidy* Any assistance granted now, whether in the form of a'subsidy or a lump sum, and which allows past methods to be carried on, will oe "a waste of money. Tailing prices combined with "these methods will eventually force the cine to shut down, and will give the industry a bad name to add to its original difficulties* ; ' jmnu.Mu sr- ux SUMMARY. /57 ! 1. The undertaking should be in the hands of one experienced in modern mining methods, as it is primarily a mining problem, as distinct, from a metallurgical, geological ox mechanical one. , 2. The mill must be put in order immediately, and brought to}}, the stage where it can be relied on to operate continuously fj - ^with the minimum of maintenance. To carry on -with the mill y., in its present state is to lose both money and production. v 3. The scale of operations must be stepped up to a stage approaching maximum mill capacity. 4. A survey must be made to determine what quantity of ore available for benching by more efficient means at each deposi at famplre, and also at Walters'. 5. Underground development at the gorge faces should be stopped/*? immediately,. ` ~ f* 6. Benching should be stepped up even by present methods, but \ J waste disposal must be by bulldozer^. I 7. shut down Walters* leases until cheaper methods have been established at Yamplre. 8. ' Prohibit erection of mine utilities near any working faces. 9. Some social services in the form of erection of huts and houses already on the ground must be undertaken. If these things are put in hand production can-be more than doubled, and costs cut by at least on July figures, in a few months, provided that the few iteoaneeded can be got onto the ground quickly. Some production could be got at the same time, but further capital expenditure to the tune of, perhaps, 15,000 would be called for, not, however, for the liquidation of debts incurred in the past. I' have noted that both of the present operators in the 'Hamereley Ranges have to date failed financially to make a success of asbestos mining'at the current high prices, and that this failure is due primarily to lack of mining wisdom. Mr. Broadhurst of C.S.R., when X asked what happened if the price dropped severely, as it well may, said "We shut down," though perhaps this , statement should not be taken as carrying the authority of the principal executives of C.S.R. Even those closely associated with asbestos production in this State are full of the idea that we can never compete with "Cape Blue" fibre, produced by native labour. A few momenta consideration will show that this belief is quite groundless, and I ao'convenced that with proper handling, the Eamersley products will hold their own on a 'Sbrld market without any form of subsidy whatever. The supposed cheapness o.f native labour is a mistaken idea. Cheapness is always reflected in costs per ton, and anyone who cares to take the trouble of consulting "The Mining Magazine" of London, will see that costs on the Rand, which employs all native labour are appreciably higher than those of our major mines, such as lake Vi ew and WLluoa* Tha .only -advantage-*of native Leb&ur ! that it ie usually plentiful, but Rand operators are now denying- this. . > /!>'? Apart from labour, toenable Wrold competition, we require a deposit of vast magnitude, end everyone who baa seen the Earner- sleys, soon forgets his original intention of trying to estimate bowmucb fibre is available, because there is so much and indic ations of eo much more, tiat it would be quite worthless and unn ecessary to pursue enquiries along these lines, T^e Government Geologist in Bulletin ICO has noted that our deposits seem similar in all respects to the Sbuth African ones, which 1 understand axe els? very large. * Therefore we have in the Bamexsley Ranges a deposit of similar magnitude to, and probably of better quality than, any other Unown deposit, and we can break ore cheaper than the country possessing the rival deposit, particularly if we use modern mechanised methods. Therefore in a prise and marketing war, we are bolding the \toip- handle, since the indications are that we cun produce more cheaply. The third requirement to enable World competition is to get a major organisation interested, and when C. S. R. cameiinTI was of the opinion that the economical development of the Hanersley deposits was a foregone conclusion. I have been amazed and dis appointed at their poor showing, though 1 have learnt to expect anything from a de Bernales undertaking. : r ; i s; f ` Surely an organisation with the resources and industrial experience of C. s. R. must know that a dangerous calling like mining can not be proseetted economically on a large scale by amateurs* .| Both Ur. Broadtarst and Ur. Hancock have told me that the Company has tried "a called mining experts," and are now content to pay for the formers mistakes. This must be very nice fox these two gentlemen, but lle outlook for the future from a State point - of view is bleak because of It. To date C.S.R. has paid forilfee experience of their asbestos executives, and very dearly, yet they have not paid in full as they will shortly see, fox Ur. Broadhurst's blithe admission "we shut down," may corn's true in th: very near future. They have apparently not however, benefited from the experience which has cost them so dearly, for there is one lesson to be learnt from it*' It is that the profession cf a Uining Engineer, particularly from the angle of skilled and experienced underground operation, is not an attractive one, rushed by fond parents with ambitions for their early headed hoys. . The reasons are obvious, and the result is the top flight.mine operators in Australia are extremely few, though they are often aped unsucceesr fully by "so called mining 'experts. * ` r . . : ; 1 say to anyone that' likes to listen, that the Eamersley .J* 8bftcs deposits,' in the hands of men of the calibre of Jake View's J. ?. Thorne, or aiuna's H. E. Carroll, would easily hold their own oo a '>rld market, and could shut down "Cape Blue" if it were necessary to carry competition to these lengths. CUE. 24tb October, 1945. 3 ryspECTo^ 0? rares -