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[January, 



PROGRESS IN SCIENCE. 



MINING. 



To-day — January, ist, 1873— the two Mines Regulations Acts of last session 

 come for the first time into operation. In conformity with certain sections of 

 these Acts, every owner, agent, or manager of a mine must, before a specified 

 date, forward to the inspector of his district a return of the annual produce of 

 his mine. A complete change is, therefore, about to be introduced in the 

 system of collecting our mineral statistics. Hitherto these valuable returns 

 have been purely voluntary contributions, obtained through the personal 

 influence of Mr. Robert Hunt,F.R.S., Keeper of Mining Records. As far back 

 as 1847, statistics of this kind were for the first time collected and published by 

 Mr. Hunt, and since 1853 the volumes have been regularly issued year by year 

 — gradually growing in fullness and accuracy until they have assumed their 

 present comprehensive form. In view of the compulsory system introduced 

 by the new Acts, we may regard the volume for 1871* — which has appeared 

 during the past quarter — as representing the last of the returns contributed by 

 the courtesy of our British mine owners. From this volume we extract the fol- 

 lowing summary, showing the number of mines working in 1871, and the 

 amount and value of the ores which they produced : — 



Number of Mines. 



Mineral. 



Tons. 



Cwts. 



£ 



2760 



Coal 



117,352,028 



— 



35,205,608 



2IO 



Iron oref 



16,334,888 



14 



7,670,572 



122 



Copper ore 



97,129 



— 



387,118 



145 



Tin ore 



16,272 



— 



1,030,834 



24I 



Lead ore 



93>965 



J 7 



i,i55,77o 



47 



Zinc ore 



I7'736 



10 



56,330 



33 



Iron pyrites 



6l,973 



— 



64,987 



1 



Silver ore"[: 



5 



— 



421 



16 



Arsenic 



4.H7 



15 



15,519 



9 



Gossans, ochres, &c. 



697 



5 



i,396 



1 



j Wolfram and tungstate 1 

 ( of soda§ j 





228 



1 



Nickel|| 



2 



— 



98 



1 



Bismuth H 



— 



2 



14 



2 



Fluor-spar 



5i 



10 



26 



4 



Manganese 



5,548 



1 



22,958 



1 



Cobalt-ore§ 



3 



— 



120 





Barytes 



5,5i2 



8 



3,539 





Clays, fine and fire 



1,255,000 



— 



475,000 





Earthy minerals 



— 



— 



600,000 





Salt 



1,505,725 



— 



752,862 





Coprolites 



Total value of the 



36,500 

 minerals proc 



luced 



5i 









in the United 



Kingdom in 



1871 .. 



£47,494,400 



* Mineral Statistics of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for the year 

 1871. With an Appendix. By Robert Hunt, F.R.S. London: Longmans and Stanford. 

 1872. 



+ "It has not been possible in every case to determine whether the return has been for 

 calcined or uncalcined ore. The actual production of raw ore will probably be in excess of 

 this quantity. Estimating the quantity of pig-iron at 2% tons of ore for each ton of iron, and 

 deducting foreign ore, ' burnt ore,' and 'cinder ' used, the quantity will be about or slightly 

 above 17,000,000 tons." 



t From the Queen Mine, Calstock, Cornwall. 



5 From East Pnol Mine, near Redruth, Cornwall. 



II From Silver Mine, Bathgate, Linlithgowshire. 



IT From Dolcoa^h Mine, near Redruth, Cornwall. 



