Major BARNESasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will state, in respect of the sum of £650,000 advanced to the Board of Trade under the Treasury Minute of 3rd January, 1920, for the purchase of zinc concentrates, for what purpose the zinc concentrates are required; where the stocks will be held; in whose charge they will be: whether they will be passed through any further manufacturing processes; and, if so, where and by whom?
§ Sir A. GEDDESA contract was entered into during the War between His Majesty's Government and an Association of all Australian producers of zinc concentrates, which provided for the purchase by the former of a certain quantity of Australian concentrates per annum for a period ending ten years after the conclusion of the War. The objects of the agreement were to provide a market for the Australian output which before the War had been controlled by German metal interests under long period contracts, and to promote zinc smelting and important allied industries in the United Kingdom by securing an assured supply of raw material. Owing to the prolonged strike at Broken Hill the concentrates so far required by His Majesty's Government are stocked there, but so soon as it becomes possible to move them the stocks will be, held in this country, and will be in the hands of such agents as may be appointed for the purpose until actually sold to smelters. The concentrates will, of course, require to be first roasted and then smelted, in order to produce spelter which is required by the galvanising and brass industries. The Government is at present considering the terms on which the concentrates will be sold to British smelters and any surplus to foreign smelters.