MINES OF THE COASTAL RANGE. 265 



The mining camp lies at an elevation of 100 feet in the narrow 

 valley of the Yin Ye Channg which leads from the south towards 

 the Heinze Basin. On the east and south it is surrounded by high 

 granite walls while on the west rises Kanbauk hill proper, built 

 up of sedimentary rocks of the Mergui Series. The actual contact 

 is visible in places along the eastern side of the valley but is usually 

 hidden under the deep alluvial and detrital deposits which fill it. 

 The mineral-bearing veins are entirely confined to the western side 

 of the valley and therefore to the sedimentary series though there are 

 no bearing veins in it near the contact. These rocks consist of fine- 

 grained argillites interbedded with more or less sandy layers, occa- 

 sionally passing into sandstone, though the lines of demarcation 

 between the different varieties are not always definite. These 

 rocks have a north and south strike and dip at a fairly high angle 

 towards the east, that is to say, towards the granite. Between 

 the sedimentary series and the granite there is a broad band of 

 decomposed material referred to locally as the c; black rock " whose 

 origin has been the subject of some controversy. It is exposed in 

 the lowest mine workings and in cuts made by sluicing operations. 

 The latest specimens which have been obtained prove that it is 

 a large basic dyke genetically related to the basic dykes met with 

 in the Coastal granite nearer the sea in this vicinity and in other 

 places. A peculiarity of this rock is that it carries tungsten. The 

 samples examined so far contain quantities varying from a trace 

 to 1| per cent, of W0 3 yet no concentrate can be obtained by crushing 

 and concentrating in the ordinary way. The presence of the element 

 is only determined by chemical analysis and the form in which it 

 occurs has still to be discovered. 



Limestones also occur with the argillites and sandstones but 

 their exact relationships are still obscure. 



The main mineralized zone has a trend length of some 1,500 

 feet, a width of about 800 feet and at least 20 distinct veins are 

 known to occur. At Kanbauk proper the main series strikes 

 approximately east and west and dips south at about 60°. The 

 same directions prevail in the case of a second series at Kanbauk 

 West. But at Thingankyun, a section of the mine to the south of 

 Kanbauk proper, the dip is towards the north at an average angle 

 of 45° while the strike remains the same. A few cross veins have 

 also been met with in the deeper workings. Veins of the ordinary 

 massive quartz, with sporadic occurrences of wolfram and cassi- 



