MINING METHODS. 311 



the adits in the decomposed zone collapse during the monsoon season 

 while the lower ones are blocked by land-slides from above. 



Special arrangements exist with regard to tools, candles and 

 explosives on different mines. In some cases they are found by 

 the mine owners, in others the labourers purchase them themselves. 



Ore concentration methods are of the crudest land, the quartz 

 being crushed by hammers on a flat stone and the powdered stuff 

 washed in a cradle or pan. It follows that most of the fines are 

 wasted, as only high grade concentrates are wanted by the com- 

 panies. To quote an independent engineer again : — " The sequence 

 of operations is wasteful in the extreme, for at least 00 per cent, 

 of lode rock is dumped without more than cursory examination ; 

 much fine ore flies away under the hammer and the loss in dressing is 

 known to be high, as much as 28 per cent, in one mine, and 40 per 

 cent, combined dump and cradle loss on another." 1 



As late as 1016, we computed that 00 per cent, of the output of 

 vein wolfram from Tavoy was won by this ruinous system, which 

 results in losses under at least three heads, viz.:— 



(1) Low grade ore left in the mine, often under such conditions 



that it may never be recovered profitably. 



(2) Low grade ore thrown away on dumps, usually so scattered 



that it may not pay to collect it later for milling. 



(3) Losses in crushing and dressing. 



Yet allowances must be made for pioneering operations in a 

 difficult field, which throughout its history has never been fully 

 equipped as regards labour, and which during the critical period 

 of the war had to produce wolfram by any and every means. It 

 is also admitted that there are concessions containing thin veins, 

 often at considerable distances apart, so poor as to dispel any hope 

 of their ever being treated in any other way ; but it is also evident 

 that large mining firms whose operations are directed by specialists 

 will not continue to disregard the future, to avoid any semblance 

 of conservation and to permit avoidable waste of the mineral resources 

 of the country any longer than is necessary. During the past two or 

 three years there have been many changes for the better, and it is 

 now the exception rather than the rule to find any large mine in 

 which the Chinese cooly is allowed to do entirely as he pleases. 

 Tribute is still widely practised but it is controlled to a degree hither 



1 Lofroy (20) p. 13. 



