DISTRIBUTION OF MINERALS IN SARAWAK 21 



one meets this ore all over the country. It is frequently rich 

 enough to show a metallic fracture and bears a close resemblance 

 to the ironstones described by Horsfield es appearing in such 

 profusion in the tin-mining districts of Banka. I have never 

 observed this ore, however, in Sarawak in the extensive veins 

 and reticulations mentioned by him ; but, if one may be allowed 

 to form and opinion from the written descriptions only of Hors- 

 held and Logan, these iron ores belong to the same class as the 

 Ironstone of the former writer, and the Lateritic iron-ores of 

 Logan's writings on the Malay Peninsula. 



Copper Lead and Tin. — The first of these minerals has been 

 detected in very unimportant traces in Upper Sarawak on the 

 Dutch border ; the two latter, though often reported, have not. 

 been discovered even in traces. Galena is said to have been 

 obtained in the vicinity of Bidi, but I am not in a position to 

 vouch for the accuracy of the report. Copper occurs in minute 

 quantities in the form of green and blue carbonate in con- 

 nection w T ith the antimony lodges at Busan, but there is no 

 evidence at present to lead us to suppose that any workable 

 deposit of Copper ores will be discovered in Sarawak. As to 

 Tin, on the contrary, there is reasonable ground for expecting 

 that it will be found to exist ; having regard to the close simi- 

 larity in geological constitutions between certain parts of the 

 Territory, and the richly-stanniferous localities of Banka and 

 Malacca. 



. Antimony has long- been known as the staple mineral export 

 of Sarawak. It ores are distributed over the w r hole of the 

 Territory as well as being found beyond the frontiers in Brunei 

 and in Dutch Borneo ; but they have not been ascertained to be 

 in workable quantity in any part of the island except in the 

 district of Upper Sarawak (Proper), where, however, all the 

 more accessible deposits are exhausted. 



The most productive localities worked have been the Busan 

 veins, the Jambusan, Busan, and Piat surface ore and the Bidi 

 lodes and surface ore. At all these places, with perhaps the 

 exception of Bidi, the out-put has either ceased altogether, or 

 has greatly decreased during* the past three years, but a great 

 deal of inferior ore is still turned out. Bearing in mind the 

 history of the mining operations as Jambusan, a new find may 

 yet be heard of even in the abandoned working — so easy is it in 

 a. country densely covered with jungle, like Borneo, to go on 

 working for months and years within a few 7 yards of a valuable 

 deposit which is revealed at length by mere accident. In addi- 

 tion to the above-mentioned localities, antimony has been marked 



