News on Screen

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 16th Year

Issue

Issue No.

7

Date Released

Mar 1963

Length of issue (in feet)

946

Stories in this Issue:

• 1. MORE POWER
• 2. SELF RESCUERS
• 3. BRETBY MAGIC
• 4. SIGN OF THE TIMES

Story

Story No. within this Issue

4 / 4

Summary

BFI synopsis: Lord Robens opens Britain’s largest outdoor illuminated sign and export of coke to a steelworks in Venezuela.
NCB Commentary - On London’s Great West Road travellers pass this building; beside it, to mark the start of a European coal promotion campaign, with Mr. Wilkinson, the Coal Board Member for MArketing, Lord Robens switched-on Britain’s largest illuminated outdoor sign, strategically sited on the road to London Airport.
But we ship our coal far beyond the boundaries of Europe.
On the south bank of the Humber, the Norwegian ship "Grey Master" is loading coke, from Yorkshire’s Dinnington, Glass Houghton and Smithy Wood Collieries.
The ten-ton wagons are hauled up a 1-in-4 incline, tipped into a hopper and into the ship’s hold.
Immingham is only one of the ports from which shipments of coke and coal are arranged by the Coal Board’s own Humber Shipping Office.
10,031-tons speedily aboard, the hatches secured, and "Grey Master" is ready for her pilot. Destination: Las Matanzas Steelworks, on the Orinoco River in Venezuela, South America.
The last gulls have turned back for England and the ship begins to lift a little to the Atlantic.
We’ve borrowed Alan Bottrill’s magic wand and here’s Venezuela’s capital city Caracas, nestling in a valley of the Andes.
The wide water of the Orinoco River. "Grey Master" - 14 days out of Immingham is now tied up at the government-owned Las Matanzas Steelwords; already discharging her cargo of Yorkshire coke.
Here in the middle of wilderness, beside one of the world’s great rivers, is beginning to rise an industrial area, which in several years may turn this part of Venezuela into a South American Ruhr. Already stell is being produced; some from Venezuelan ore, and some from imported materials. By 1965 it is hoped steel production will reach a million tons a year.
Las Matanzas is one of the growing efforts to diversify the Venezuelan economy; to reduce the country’s dependence on oil, and to foster the establishment of new industries.
It’s a good sign when British coke can be exported to the blast furnaces of Venezuela - the world’s third largest producer of oil.

Keywords

Mining; Ceremonies; Fuels

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
The British National Film Catalogue   Vol.1 1963, p.55
The National Archives COAL 32   /13 Scripts for Mining Review, 1960-1963

Credits:

Camera

John Reid

Commentator

John Slater

Sponsor

National Coal Board

Production Co.

National Coal Board Film Unit

Cutter

Rhonda Small