TIN MINING IN MALAYA.

Cromwell Argus, Volume LXI, Issue 3162, 11 May 1931, Page 3

TIN MINING IN MALAYA.

I »♦• NEW METHODS OF PRODUCTION. POSSIBLE APPLICATION IN N.Z. Some interesting details of tin mining in the Malay States were related to a Daily Times reporter recently by Mr R. J. Turnbull, who for the past 18 years has been engaged in Malaya in the production of this metal and who is at the present time a visitor to Dunedin. New Zealanders are generally familiar with the bucket dredge with which most of the alluvial goldfields in this country have at one time or another been worked, but few of those who have heard the protesting rumble and screech of the endless chain of buckets

as they dug into the 25 feet or so of wash and overhead burden have evis-

aged a plant capable of scraping the bottom at 120 feet and turning over 200,000 cubic yards per month at a cost of approximately twopence per yard. The special difficulties which have been encountered, however, in mining tin in the Malay States have demanded dredges which could treat ground of this depth and dispose of a barren overburden extending in some instances for GO feet at a rate which would make the treatment of this type of country a practical possibility. The engineers have met the challenge of their mechanical ingenuity and skill, and the result has been huge floating machines embodying | every known device for the dredging and saving of the tin ore, which in past years has risen to such a price in the markets of the world as to render production the most important industry in the Malayan States. With such means at their disposal for handling the great alluvial deposits to be found over a consderable portiion of the country, numerous companies have come into the field, most of them possessed of large financial resources and have placed the industry on so , sound a footing that production has more than equalled demand, with the result that tin has slumped on the markets, and those engaged in mining the ore have been faced with a period of fairly intense depression. But the almost endless uses to which tin is put in modern life precludes the possibility ox its commercial value remaining long in the doldrums, and Mr Turnbull was confident that the industry had many years of prosperity before it in Malaya. New Zealand has a special interest in tin mining in that part of the world by reason of the fact that many men of this country occupy responsible positions as engineers and experts with the various companies operating there, and, indeed it ma:/ be said that much of the success which has attended their efforts has been due to the experience which the pioneers of tin dredging gained on the goldfields of New Zealand and Victoria. Practically all available men of this type have been absorbed, and Mr Turnbull stated that most of the younger men who were being attracted to the industry were drawn from Scotland, where they had received that engineering experience which under modern conditions was . so essential. These men received a commencing salary of round about £3O per month, in addition to which they were provided with free housing and amusements by the companies by whom they ' were employed. The climate, although hot and damp, was fairly healthy for Europeans, and, thanks to the preventive measures which were being adopted, malaria was becoming increasingly rare among the white population. Formerly few women had accompanied their husbands to Malaya, but now with the provision of the amenities of civilisation many were taking up residence in the country. There was still, however a large proportion of single men or men who had left their wives at home and club life was a feature of Malaya generally. The country was really remarkably wealthy, and life normally was gay in the larger centres, where men of all nationalities and creeds mingled in their pursuit of business and pleasure. The fall in the prices of tin and of rubber, the production of which formed the only other industry of the country, had ' hit the whole Malaya very hard, and many of the rubber companies had I recalled large numbers of their staffs with the result that the depression was being keenly felt, but Mr Turnbull was confident that it was only a question of time till the usual air of prosperity was in evidence. A considerable proportion oE the population, Mr Turnbull stated, was composed of Chinese and Indians, who engaged mostly as traders and coolies, and did most of the manual work. The Malayan was an extremely easy-going individual with an aversion to anything in the nature 61 hard work, although as a chaffeur or in charge of machinery he showed himself to be intelligent and consciencious. The Government was nominally in the hands of native rulers, but actually the real power lay with the British residents, whose control of affairs was, generally speaking, entirely satisfactory and the only one possible with a population so mixed and containing such backward elements. Incidentally, Mr Turnbull remarked that in efficiency and dignity it appeared to possess a considerable superiority over that which was at present in power in New Zealand. A point which Mr Turnbull regarded of being of more than ordinary interest and importance to this country was the possibility of utilising dredges of the type at present in use in Malaya in once again exploiting the gold-bearing lands of Otago and other provinces of New Zealand. He pointed out that with the depth at which these could operate and the •huge amount of ground which they could turn over at a much lower cost than was the case 20 or 30 years ago, it should now be feasible to work many areas that in the past it had been necessary to neglect. With the fall in the price Of most commodities, gold had actually risen in value, and many of tlje big English mining companies were anxious to secure concessions which offered a prospect of a reasonable return on the capital invested. Mr Turnbull was of the opinion that a revival of interest in gold mining in New Zealand, through the employment of large dredge:-*, was a distinct possibility, and one which would be highly beneficial to the country.