COFFEE. t 23 



The Future of Copper Mining in Yunnan. 



The previous pages show that copper ores are widely distributed 

 throughout Yunnan, and that at one time copper mining was the 

 most important branch of the mineral industry in the province. 

 The decline of the past fifty years is due to a number of causes ; 

 the following are the more prominent internal ones :— 



(1) partial exhaustion of rich ores above ground water level ; 



(2) political disturbances and strangulation by too strict an 



official control ; 



(3) destruction of the forests and consequent lack of large 



quantities of charcoal at reasonable prices ; 



(4) difficulties of transportation. 



Although I believe that the earlier French writers were to some 

 extent led astray by too complaisant an attitude towards Chinese 

 accounts and formed too exaggerated an opinion of the potential- 

 ities of the copper resources of Yunnan, I do not accept in its entirety 

 Deprat's rather gloomy prediction. It is admitted that there are 

 no important deposits within reasonable distance of the railway 

 which now runs from Meng-tzu to Yunnan Fu, but I wish to look- 

 further ahead when other lines will doubtless traverse the province 

 and open up areas which are now most inaccessible. I do not 

 believe that there are any important deposits unknown to the 

 Chinese, unless they are situated in the remoter regions of Yunnanese 

 Tibet, neither do I think that the lean deposits of small extent 

 will ever lend themselves to exploitation on modern lines. At 

 the same time I am convinced that Yunnan possesses considerable 

 resources of copper ores at depths at which indigenous methods have 

 failed to reach them. While it is impossible to point to any parti- 

 cular example, I conclude that the larger deposits in the districts 

 of Tung-ch'uan Fu, Wei-ning Chou, Yung-pei T'ing and perhaps 

 Lin-an Fu, Li-chiang Fu and Wei-hsi T'ing, merit careful indivi- 

 dual attention and that some of them will probably repay the 

 attention they receive. 



The future expansion of copper mining and smelting will depend 

 on the scientific application of the most recent practice and this 

 cannot be done either by European or Chinese until better trans- 

 port facilities are created in most cases, and a more generous attitude 

 is adopted by the Administration towards all. 



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