144 COGGIN BROWN : MINES & MINERAL RESOURCES OF YUNNAN. 



the others. A royalty equivalent to Rs. 75 per annum was paid 

 to the Government for each excavation. The workings that I 

 was allowed to examine had been made with thoroughness and 

 care. The roof, sides and floor of the inclines were very well 

 timbered, and, sloping very steeply, had been constructed with 

 steps to facilitate ascent and descent, while for 8 or 10 feet in every 

 100 feet they are driven straight. Oil these level places sumps 

 are dug, into which the water drains and being ladled out is 

 laboriously carried to the top m wooden buckets. Ventilation is 

 quite good and is produced by driving rises through to the surface 

 at various points. All the actual mining work was done by Lolos. 

 Very few men were employed as ore was plentiful and easy to win. 

 Their average wages worked out at about Rs. 3-8 to lis. 1 per 

 month ; food was supplied by the owners. None of the drifts 

 that I examined were very extensive, and were certainly not longer 

 than 600 to 1,000 feet from the surface to the end. 



The deposit appeared to be confined to one particular band 

 of greyish quartzite, associated in places with soft, blackish shales. 

 The whole of the former band was more or less mineralised. There 

 was no distinct vein or single fracture. A thorough shattering 

 of the rock seemed to have taken place, and orpiment to have been 

 deposited in the bedding, joint and fracture planes, and also to have 

 replaced the minerals of the rock itself to some extent. Small 

 quantities of realgar occur and minute cubes of iron pyrites were 

 also found. The arsenic sulphides were seen in irregular strings, 

 swelling out into patches and bands, which sometimes attained a 

 thickness of over twelve inches ; these larger lumps however do 

 not persist very far, but only continue for a short distance when they 

 are replaced by others. The mineralised band was about four feet 

 thick ; it may be much more, and I can express no opinion as to 

 its lateral continuations which may be considerable. I have no 

 opinion to offer on the origin of the ores. 



All the work is done with hammer and chisel the broken ore 

 Treatment. being carried to the surface in baskets by 



small boys. It is then cracked by hand and 

 the richer portions picked out. Those pieces which cannot be so 

 treated are roughly crushed, and the gangue separated by pan- 

 ning in small closely-woven bamboo baskets. There is a great 

 waste of the finer disseminated ore by these methods : indeed it is 

 surprising how much material was being rejected by the Chinese. 



