TIN 217 



Stretching down the whole length of the Peninsula from 

 north-west to south-east is a long range of granite mountains, 

 flanked with hills of slate and similar rocks. In these highlands 

 veins or lodes of tin ore occur. The rainfall of the Malay 

 Peninsula varies from 68 inches to 167 inches a year, the 

 average over the whole Peninsula being 90 inches. These 

 heavy rains in course of time have worn down the highland, 



CHINESE WOMEN CLEANING TIN ORE 



and washed down the tin-bearing rocks to the lowlands and 

 valleys, so that vast alluvial deposits have been formed, and in 

 these ' nearly pure tin ore occurs in the finest of dust up to 

 lumps several hundred pounds in weight '. 



In the Peninsula tin ' is found in every conceivable kind 

 of soil from the stiffest of clays to the lightest of sands ; from 

 the very grass roots down to depths of 250 feet ; in the lowest 

 valleys and on the tops of mountains. The tin-bearing ground 

 may be in some exceptional cases so rich as to be black with 

 grains of tin ore \ l and yet on the other hand, worked with 

 modern machinery, even land yielding half a pound or a quarter 

 of a pound of tin ore to the ton of ground may be worked 

 with profit. 



1 Mining in Malaya, by F. J. B. Dykes, F.G.S. 



