82 COGGIN BROWN : MINES & MINERAL RESOURCES OF YUNNAN, 



The briquettes used on the railways in Indo-Ohina are made 

 at Hongay from mixtures of the rather poor coal found there and 

 the richer Miike coal of Japan. Lantenois states (La., p. 404) 

 that even the better qualities of Japanese coal are bituminous and 

 pyritous and consequently encrust and burn the fire-grates and 

 boiler tubes. The Yunnanese coals are better in this respect, and 

 the interesting suggestion is made that mixtures of gaseous coal 

 like that from the Ni-ou-ke field in south-eastern Yunnan, and the 

 low grade coals of Tongking should be made for burning in steam- 

 boat and locomotive boilers. This suggestion is based on the 

 success with which such mixtures of small or even dust coal have 

 been used as locomotive fuel on some of the railways in France. 

 Such mixtures consist of | of poor material averaging 9 or 10 per 

 cent, of volatile matter with f of rich material averaging 30 or 

 35 per cent, of volatile matter. Conditions are not very different 

 in Tongking where the local coal contains 8 to 10 per cent, of vola- 

 tile matter and the Miike coal or the Ni-ou-ke coal of Yunnan con- 

 tains 30 to 35 per cent, of volatile matter particularly rich in 

 hydrocarbons. 



I do not know whether such experiments have been undertaken. 

 Their success, if the composition of the coals as given holds equally 

 good for bulk, depends largely on the costs of transportation. 



IRON. 



Iron ores are well distributed throughout Yunnan and although 

 the mining and treatment of iron ores has never attained the import- 

 ance of copper metallurgy, the industry is a settled and well estab- 

 lished one and regularly supplies the demands of the Province in 

 cast iron, wrought iron and steel. 



The " Tien-nan-kouang-tchang ' enumerates fourteen ironstone 

 mines, presumably working about 1850. but it is doubtful whether 

 any of them can be identified with modern mines (G., II, p. 232). 



Joubert states that the richest deposits exploited at the period 

 when he travelled in Yunnan were situated at Kang-tchong-pa 

 and Lang-pong-li. I am not able to identify these localities. He 

 also mentions the fact that iron minerals occur at Siao-tsao-pa, 

 on the banks of the Kokui river. (G., II, p. 159). 



Rocher writes that ironstone mines are more numerous than 

 any others in Yunnan and that they appear to have been operated 

 by the aborigines before the advent of the Chinese into the country. 



