CHAPTER XXXIII. 
DESCRIPTION OF DF.FO^lT^-continued. 
The Central Provinces- Bhandara District. 
History — Output and labour — Physical characters and geology — List of deposits — 
Nature and quaUty of the ores — Communications and transport — Kosumbah — Sita- 
pathur — Sukh — Hatora — Miragpur — Mohugaon Ghat — Pandarwani — Salebaddi — 
Chikhla II — Kurraura (Ponwa Dongri) — Chikhla I — Silasaongi — Asalpani I — 
Aealpaiii II (Saya Hurki) — Pach ra. 
{See Plate 43.) 
Manganese-ores were first reported to occur in this district by Colonel 
Eloomfield, who sometime previous to 18831 found 
loose pieces of ore in watercourse near Ambagarh. 
Then, in the field season of 1893-1894, Mr. P. N. Datta of the Geological 
Survey of India, while geologically mapping parts of this district, dis- 
covered several (Nos. 2, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13) of the deposits enumerated below ; 
but his discovery was never made public, and the deposits remained 
unknown until the opening up of the manganese-ore deposits of the Nag- 
pur district at the beginning of this century led to active prospecting in 
the Bhandara district with the resultant rediscovery of all the above- 
mentioned deposits and the discovery of several other deposits not seen by 
Mr. Datta. During 1901 the Central Provinces Prospecting Syndicate 
commenced work on the Chikhla I deposit, with the production of 499 
tons. In 1905 the Central India Mining Company and Messrs. Jessop 
& Co. also started work in this distiict, and Mr. Laxminarayan in 1906. 
The yearly figures of production and average daily number of 
workers are shown in the following table : — 
Output and labour. 
Year. 
Production in 
long tons. 
Average daily 
number of work- 
ers. 
1901 
499 
(a) 
1902 
5,360 
300 
1903 
4,998 
75 
1904 
8,559 
64 
1905 
35,238 
300 
1906 
97,906 
973 
1907 
143,703 
2,230 
(a) Not returned, although work was progressing. 
1 Letter dated 3rd September 1883, filed in the Geological Survey OflBce. 
