COPPER. 101 



Ch'ii-ching Fa prefecture (lat. 25° 30' : long. 103° 44')— 

 Tou-li-chou "\ 



Liang-chong-kin f „ „ Ch'ii-ching . . . 2 days. 



Lou-fa-tchang [ These mines only produce a little copper. 

 Lan-tchang ' 



North-East and Central Yunnan. — Yung-pei-cli'ang, two days from Yung-pei Ting. 

 Ma long-tchang and San-kia-tehang in the prefecture of Ch'u-hsiuB Fu. These mines 

 include a great number of smaller ones and produce 350,000 catties of copper per annum. 



Other mines which come under the Yunnan bureau are in the 



north of the province or in the adjoining 

 Other Copper mines. ^.^ q{ ggv^^ 



Hui-li Chou district (Ssu-ch'uan)— 



Kiang-kiuin-tchang, distance from Hui-li . . .2 days. 



Lou-tchang „ . • • • 8 niiles - 



Tchou-si-tien „ >, » • • • *i da y s - 



In addition to these there are two other mines, Lou-tchouan- 

 tchang. 3 days from Lou-tchouan, and Ta-yao-tchang, 1 day from 

 Ta-yao hien. The five mines together produced 300.000 catties 

 of copper per annum. 



In 189G the annual imperial tribute had fallen to about 820 short 

 tons per annum. Duclos also gives an account of the copper mines 

 and smelters at San-kia-ch'ang in the Yi-men Hsien district which 

 I visited at a later date and will describe on a subsequent page. 



(Du., pp. 285-291). 



Leclere, writing in 1891 stated that copper-mining in Yunnan 

 and southern Ssu-ch'uan commenced more than a thousand years 

 ago. The Imperial Department controlling the industry was founded 

 in the middle of the 17th century. He pointed out that the statis- 

 tics of this department which are still available are of little value 

 as they draw no distinction between active and abandoned mines. 

 Yunnan copper was then the only metal used for coinage through- 

 out the Empire. The annual production at the end of the 17th 

 century was 6,000 metric tons, and at the time of his travels in 

 the country was still 1,000 to 1,500 metric tons. 



Regarding the ore deposits he wrote that the ores bornite, 

 covellite and more rarely copper pyrites are found in Carboniferous 

 slates but such occurrences are practically abandoned. Layers of 

 cuprite and native copper intercalated in porphyrite are very much 

 esteemed, but the absence of explosives often makes them unwork- 

 able. Sandstones impregnated with copper carbonates are said 

 to be found in the Trias. 



