MINING PRACTICE, 85 



destruction of mica through ignorance and carelessness will only be 

 reduced to a minimum when a system of contracts, like the " tribute " 

 and " tutwork " in Cornish mines, or the system of " bargains " of the 

 Welsh slate quarries, is adopted. 



In the few Nellore mines where open quarrying is still possible, a 

 considerable saving might be effected, notwithstanding the cheapness 

 ol labour, by simple machinery like the " Blondin " hauler of the Scotch 

 stone quarries, and by using pumps or pulsometers for the removal of 

 water. In opening new mines, however, it would be far more economical 

 in the long run if the ordinary vertical shaft arrangements were adopted 

 after the value of the pegmatitt-vein has been tested by surface-working 

 along its outcrop. Inikurti has given rise to the idea that the pegma- 

 tites of Nellore form stock-like masses, irregular in shape and having 

 no determinable disposition in the schists, whereas Inikurti is an excep- 

 tional case ; the lenticular masses are usually much flatter than this and 

 are often best described as sheets with a strike and dip of fair constancy. 

 Even Inikurti might have been worked for a small fraction of what it 

 has cost if, after its richness had been proved beyond question in 1S91, 

 a properly organized system of mining had been adopted by the judici- 

 ous outlay of a little capital with underground instead of open workings. 

 It must be remembered that the advice offered above by no means 

 covers the whole art of mica mining. Every occurrence has its pecu- 

 liarity, and requires, consequently, a special form of attack, and the 

 most economical system of working will consist of a judicious selec- 

 tion from the great variety of recognised mining practices, modified, 

 if necessary, by the ingenuity and common sense of the manager to 

 suit the special local conditions. 



There is still another form of economy which would be more easily 

 accomplished if the mines were worked as larger concerns, and 

 that is in the transport of the mica from the mines to the godowns. 

 At present the mica is carried by coolies, and, besides the expense of 

 mere transport, the practice affords an opportunity for theft, the 

 general prevalence of which is shown by the existence in some centres 

 of mica " producers " who possess mines from which mica, any expert 



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