Tin mine

“ There have been some rich finds. The Cornwall Mine, on the highest point, has been proved to carry 131⁄2 per cent. of lode tin. Another lode tin mine is the Yarana, which has given good results. The lode in this mine is similar to that found in Cornwall, England, being associated with quartz, schist and kaolin. Tin ore is most peculiar-looking stuff. Some lumps of it that are called “nuggets of wood tin,” weigh 30 lb. each; another kind is like fine sand, and another like gunpowder, and the colours range from white to red, yellow, ruby, black, grey and brown. ”

“ The grant for working a mine is called a set, and is usually taken by one or more persons from the proprietor of the land in which a load maybe found, except in such cases of tin-mines as are anciently embounded according to the provisions of the stannary laws, whereby a right of working for this metal is obtained. ”

“ The Mount Bischoff mine, which is worked as an open quarry, is the largest producer of tin, and (with an original capital of £30,000) has paid over two millions sterling in dividends. The number of tin miners in the state is about 1170. ”

“ In waste and uninclosed lands any person who discovers a tin mine, may mark out its limits to a certain extent, which is called bounding a mine. The bounder becomes the real proprietor of the mine, and may either work it himself, or give it in lease to another, without the consent of the owner of the land, to whom, however, a very small acknowledgment must be paid upon working it. ”

“ There can be no doubt that this was the oldest method of tin-getting, and the abundant traces of ancient stream-works which are to be seen from Dartmoor to the Land’s End give proof of the great accumulation which must have been formerly worked out by this method. In the course of ages most of these alluvial deposits have been exhausted, and where, thirty or forty centuries ago, large quantities of tin ore were superficially gathered with little ingenuity and labour, the miner is now obliged to descend many a fathom deep into the bowels of the earth and work his slow way through the hard rock. ”

“ Rumor had pointed out this place as the locality of a tin-mine. The frontiersmen are greatly disposed to excite each other's imaginations by reports of mines and discoveries, every one of which is fancied to be some new Potosi or El Dorado. Our host was not backward in bringing to me some specimens of his supposed treasure. It consisted of several heavy lumps of the ore called, by mineralogists, iron glance. It had the usual color, great weight, and high metallic lustre. ”

“ Imagine the descent into a mine through the sea, the miners working at the depth of 12 fathoms below the waves; the rod of a steam engine extending from the shore to the shaft, a distance of nearly 120 fathoms; and a great number of men momentarily menaced with an inundation of the sea, which continually drains in no small quantity through the roof of the mine, and roars loud enough to be distinctly heard in it.” Tin is the principal produce of this mine, and the ore is extremely rich. ”

“ Table 62.—Political Control of Tin Deposits and Smelters Based on Estimates for 1918
COMMERCIAL CONTROL OF TIN MINES
British capital is the dominant controlling factor of approximately 57 per cent. of the world’s tin output, and through affiliations with capital of other countries it has a partial control of about 15 per cent. more. British capital is dominant in all of the British possessions and Siam, and through buying agencies practically controls the export tin from China. Bolivian tin mines are the only ones in the world in which British [334] control is not strongly felt. ”

“ These fairies haunt none but the richest tin mines, and many are reputed to have been discovered by their singing and knocking underground; and miners think when they hear them that it is a sign of good luck, because when following their noises they often chance on lodes of good ore. When a miner goes into an "old level" and sees a bright light, it is a sure sign that he will find tin there. Knockers like spriggans are very ugly beings, and, if you do not treat them in a friendly spirit, very vindictive. "As stiff as Barker's knee" is a common saying in Cornwall ”

“ The Chinese and Malays call this lost metal young, tin, which is re-turned to the earth to ripen, because it is not yet old enough to stay in their primitive machines. It is only now, after no one can tell how many centuries since tin has been known and worked in the peninsula, that a rational system of operating the mines is about to be adopted. ”

“ It rises to the height of 3000 feet, the whole being coated with a thin mantle of the richest ore. In all directions it is covered with machines of various forms, horizontal and vertical galleries, tunnels and roads, and represents, as it were, a mine turned inside out. The whole of the operations are exposed to view, like those in the Carclaze tin mine in Cornwall, only in the former the ore is conveyed by tram-roads, galleries, and shafts to the bottom of the mountain, where they all unite in one main shaft, from which a tramway runs to the smelting-ovens of Eisenerz and Vordernberg. ”

“ Here then the stranger may witness the whole process, from the period when the ore is broken in the vein, to that when the pure Tin runs out of the furnace, and is laded into moulds which contain about 370 pounds. The principal Tin lode in this mine is, in one part, of the enormous width of 30 feet, and is so rich withal, that the adventurers lately [219] gained a clear profit of upwards of £10,000, in the space of three months. The workings extend for more than a mile and a quarter under ground, and about thirteen hundred persons are engaged in conducting its operations. ”

“ We know that there are considerable areas there which in some cases are very rich in alluvial tin. There are also tin lodes there; but that for the present is another story, because alluvial tin is a thing which is easily and comparatively inexpensively worked, whereas to work a lode mine requires good means of transport, and to be able to get up to the mines easily expensive and heavy machinery. We have a good climate, we have a sufficiency of water, and so far as we can ascertain, we have a sufficiency of native labour. ”

“ Every man may hope that when he locates a new mine he is taking possession of a property that will have as extensive ore bodies as those that have been proven to exist in the lead-silver mines of Laurium, Greece, the quicksilver mines of Spain, or the copper and tin mines of Cornwall. ”

“ There are, as might be expected, many analogies between the mining of tin and the mining of lead. The processes were very similar, and the laws governing the workers had much in common, but it is in the case of the Stannaries that we find the full development of the 'free miner,' so far as England is concerned. Certain initial differences in the methods employed are observable owing to the form in which tin is obtained. Tin, like other metals, exists in veins or lodes embedded in the rock at various depths ”

“ There is always something to go away with. Mr. Lush, in a report which he gave us at the time of the flotation of this mine, estimated that we could reckon upon having 500 acres containing 2 lbs. of tin per cubic yard, and if that estimate is realised—and I have no reason to anticipate that it will not be realised—and the profits are made that he foreshadowed might be made, you have a very handsome property, and one containing apparently something over half a million sterling worth of tin. ”

“ In the places where low-grade tin ores have been mined the by-products, principally arsenic and wolfram, have helped to pay expenses, and most of these mines are advantageously situated with respect to transportation and supplies. In the placers of the Malay Peninsula, including Banca and Billiton, and those of Australia, which are worked by dredges, the tin content ranges from one-half pound to as high as 3 pounds, but averages less than a pound of cassiterite to the cubic yard. Advantageous location and cheap labor make profitable exploitation possible. ”

“ The lode of Tin was formerly worked at the Mount, and a considerable quantity of ore obtained; any farther excavation, however, threatened to injure the foundations of the castle, and it was therefore prudently abandoned.
The remains of the Mine may be seen on the south side of the hill, and should be visited by the mineralogist, who will find in the Drift, [30] Tin crystals and Carbonate of Copper, besides some other minerals. Veins of Lead are also discoverable in the rocks. Mr. ”

“ In many parts of the world the lodes do not carry sufficient tin to be worked profitably. In Cornwall and in Tasmania, lodes carrying about 1 per cent. of tin are being mined; but in general a content of 1 to 2 per cent. tin is the lower limit for commercial lode mining. In Bolivia the tin lodes average 5 to 8 per cent. tin and some bodies of ore carrying as much as 40 per cent. ”

“ The value of a coal mine, a stone quarry, or a gypsum bed, often arises as much from its situation as its fertility. But the proposition may be reversed with respect to a metallic mine, the value of which to the proprietor arises more from its fertility and less from its situation. Gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, &c., when separated from the matrix of the mine, are so valuable that they can bear to be transported a long journey over land, and the most distant voyage by water. ”

“ The copper was found in the capping, but as they gained in depth they became more and more valuable for their tin. Some of the Cornish mines are three-quarters of a mile in depth. Very lately tin has been discovered and mined in vast quantities in the Straits Settlements, India. As it is found in the streams the expense of mining is very light, and it is killing the European mines. The Cornish miners put their tin ore on a shovel when they wish to test it. The sample is first crushed fine and a few skillful shakes get rid of all the gangue, leaving behind the tin and wolfram. ”

“ Placer tin deposits on the Ringarooma River (Derby district) supply about 1,000 tons of tin concentrates a year. The principal placer mines are the Pioneer and Briseis. Near Gladstone, placers and lode deposits carrying tin and tungsten are worked. At the Anchor mine, in the Blue Tier district, a tin-bearing granite averaging one-half per cent. tin is worked, but mining has not been profitable. The Renison Bell, Dreadnought-Boulder and Montana mines, in the North Dundas field, are in slates cut by dikes of quartz porphyry. Zinc, lead, and iron sulphides are important in the lodes. ”

“ Several other companies and syndicates were floated in the south-west and Perth, and for a time the future of tin mining was excitedly debated. The tin field lay on a ridge, and the greater part of the surface was covered with ironstone gravel, with here and there outcrops of hard crystalline rock, and dykes of diorite and tourmaline. The Bunbury Company sank a shaft on Stinton's claim, and found a false bottom of ironstone, in which there were pockets containing tin ore. Deeper down through a coarse quartz grit, containing a little clayey matter, richer tin ore and tourmaline were struck. ”

“ Mr. Lush says the Bauchi tin deposits are richer than he has seen in any part of the world. It is, he says, a granite country, and although the existence of reefs has been proved in one part of the district, the alluvial deposits—which yield tin oxide containing about 72 per cent. of metallic tin—are of principal importance.
[58]
ALLUVIAL AND LODE MINING
Alluvial mining, has, of course, the demerit of being short-lived. There is no great depth in the deposits, and especially if they are worked economically—that is to say rapidly—they are exhausted in a comparatively short time. ”

“ So long as they last these easily accessible alluvial deposits will always be cheaper to work than the deep mines. On the other hand, they may give out, and recent explorations underground seem to indicate that there is still much valuable ore not only of tin but of other metals too, to be obtained from the old mines of Cornwall. ”

“ As would be expected from the nature of the ground, the top gravels do not carry payable values, but it seems to me almost impossible for the bottom to be other than rich when it is remembered that tin will not travel far without easy outlet and good grades, and that for a long period tin-bearing dirt has been emptying itself into this basin from so many channels. We have been unable to reach bottom in ordinary trial pits owing to heavy water and the running nature of the alluvial, and it will now have to be tested by boring. ”

“ The centre of the tin-mining industry is at Tin City, a small settlement three miles west of Teller, Cape Prince of Wales, and is reached by small steamers which ply from Nome. Several corporations are developing promising properties with large stamp-mills. Both stream-tin and tin ore in ledges are found throughout the district. ”

“ The lodes in the Cornish tin and copper mines are divided by shafts and galleries into rectangular compartments, called ‘pitches.’ These are open to the inspection of all the labouring miners in the county, and, by an admirable system, each ‘pitch’ is let by public competition, for two months, to two or four or more miners, who may work it as they choose. These men agree to break the ores, wheel them, raise them to the surface, and bring them (if desired) into a fit condition for the market. ”