xxiv] MINERAL WEALTH OF BORNEO 



Upper Sarawak river towards the head-waters of the Sadong 

 and on the Batang-Lupar at Marop, though some time ago its 

 existence in small quantities was also demonstrated on the Binatang 

 river, one of the affluents of the Rejang. Up to quite recently 

 only Chinamen worked on the Sarawak goldfields, the yield not 

 being sufficient to attract European enterprise. Lately, however, 

 the Borneo Company has undertaken the extraction of gold on a 

 large scale with the cyanide process, extensive machinery, electric 

 lights, and a numerous staff of European employes, on the Upper 

 Sarawak river. It is not possible, however, to give the precise 

 amount of the gold annually won, on account of the facility with 

 which any supervision of the results of native work can be eluded, 

 whilst the gold collected by the Borneo Company does not figure 

 in the official reports, as the company pays a fixed sum for its 

 mining rights to the Sarawak Government. 



Diamond seeking under European direction on the Sarawak 

 river has always given poor results, and it has consequently remained 

 entirely in the hands of the Chinese and Malays. It is certain, 

 however, that many of the stones found in Sarawak are smuggled 

 out of the country without any one being the wiser. Rubies have 

 recently been discovered in the Barram district, but I know of no 

 other precious stones having been found in Sarawak. 



The famous antimony mine which existed on the Upper Sarawak 

 river, and was at one time one of the riches of the country, 

 is now exhausted. Antimony ore is still found in the Sadong 

 district at Siring, on the Batang-Lupar near Marop, and on the 

 Pelagus, Kanowit, and Silalang, affluents of the Rejang. At 

 present the metal is extracted only by independent miners on a 

 small scale, but it still yields a profit to Government of over $20,000 

 per annum. 



A vein of cinnabar had been discovered on the Upper Sarawak 

 river when I was in Borneo, and was worked with profit by the 

 Borneo Company, but it is now exhausted. Other deposits of 

 mercury ore have been subsequently found in the Samarahan 

 and Sadong districts, on the Batang-Lupar at Kumpang and Marop, 

 and in larger quantities at Tegora and Gading in the so-called 

 Sarawak district, but it appears that they have been nearly worked 

 out, for the exportation of mercury from Sarawak is now very 

 small. 



The iron ore found in the Kayan country, which I have spoken 

 of in a previous chapter, has not been worked except by the natives 

 themselves for their own use. Traces of copper, in the shape of 

 azurite and malachite, have been met with in the antimony veins 

 of the Upper Sarawak. In the same localities lead ore has also 

 been found, but in very small quantities. 



Contrary to what has happened with other mineral products, 



37i 



