88 COGGIN BROWN : MINES St MINERAL RESOURCES OF YUNNAN. 



development, neither have I any remarks to offer as to the nature 

 of the occurrence. All I can say is there was sufficient material 

 visible to last the Chinese many years at the then rate of consumption. 



It would be expected that the miners would prefer to win rich 

 ore from the outcropping portion, rather than to mine it. But 

 the tools at their disposal are of poor quality and gunpowder does 

 not appear to be used locally, so that it is really easier to make 

 small tunnels in soft portions of the ore-body, than to attempt 

 to smash up the hard portion which weathering has left on the 

 outcrop. The ore is carried out to the surface in baskets and there 

 broken up and hand-sorted, only the purer pieces are kept and 

 second grade material is rejected. It is then loaded into small 

 mule panniers and taken down to the smelters at Ying-pan-kai 

 or Ma-li-pa. Mining is only carried on during the dry season ; in the 

 rains the workers returns to their farms for the paddy season. The 

 mines are said to have been worked at intervals for a number of 

 years, but only about 15 or 20 men were employed when I was 

 there in 1909. The headman of the gang of miners is financed 

 by the company, which takes all the ore produced and allows 40 

 cash for every 100 catties of ore handed over. This works out at the 

 small sum of Rs. 1-5 per ton. A charge equal to If annas is made 

 for transporting one mule load of ore from the mines to the smelter. 



There were three blast furnaces at Ying-pan-kai and five at 



Ma-li-pa. Those at the former place had 

 Smelting. , , .,. , . . * 



been built on the mountain slopes across the 



valley, but at Ma-li-pa they were in the village itself. 



The furnace is of massive stone-work, the back and sides forming 

 a rough semi-circle. It is lined with a refractory white clay. It 

 differs essentially from the high blast furnace that I have Seen 

 used in other parts of Yunnan as it is only seven or eight feet high 

 at the back, and the side walls five feet in thickness. The shaft 

 is broader at the top than at the bottom. The blast is let in by a 

 tuyer which enters the lower portion of the back wall and has a 

 slight downward direction towards the hearth. The blower is 

 seven or eight feet long and one and a half feet in diameter. It 

 is worked by a turbine. The tapping-hole is situated on the right- 

 hand side, and is also used as the slag outlet before the hearth gets 

 full of molten metal. In front of the furnace is a paved stone 

 incline which slopes up to within two feet of the top of the front 

 wall. At the bottom of this is a stone-paved tank through which 



