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Story: Iron and steel

Onekakā ironworks

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Onekakā ironworks

In the 1920s the Onekaka Iron and Steel Company built a blast furnace and ironworks near deposits of limonite iron ore at Onekakā in north-west Nelson. They were successful in smelting iron, but the iron ore reserves were small, and the operation ceased in 1935.

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Alexander Turnbull Library

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How to cite this page

Fleur Templeton, Iron and steel – Attempts to extract iron, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/5883/onekaka-ironworks (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Fleur Templeton, published 2 March 2009.