The National tribune., 1899-12-14
RICH CHINESE MINES.
Stories of Fabulous mineral Wealth Of the
Yunnan Region.

The fabulous mineral wealth of Yunfian,
China, is the subject of report by Consul
Smithers, at Chung TO the Department
of State. Some of the information the
Consul forwards is almost incredible, but
Mr.. Smithers gives as his authority Gen.
Mesny. an old resident of China, who
fought for that Government in the Teeping
rebellion. Mr.. Smithers thinks Gen,
Mesny's statements are fairly accurate.
The mineral wealth of Yunnan," Gen.
Mesny says, 'is very great; gold, silver
copper. tin, iron, oal and various other
mineral Is are abundant throughout the most
of this inaccessible province.
"The Chinese Government is perfectly
well aware of the existence of these mineral
deposits, and permission has been granted
by succeeding dynasties to extract the
wealth from the EARTH and the local govern
ment has furnished funds from time to
time for the purpose of assisting local
miners and metallurgistS to exercise their
calling on behalf of the State. But the
regulations issued by the Government for
the guidance of the miners and metallurg-
lists; have heen Of such "a nature as to prevent
"A proper d ,vclopment of those Industries;
consequently, the work has been done i'll IA
very primitive ard Wasteful manner.
The usual manner of getting ore i'll
Yunnan has been to follow lode from the
surface into the ground as long as possible.
without going to the expense OF sinking a
shaft or driving protitleSs tunnels. The
miners have usually been let to do as they
pleased underground, as the Government
officials ard private capitalists have con-
sidercd it beneath their dignity to explore
the caverns dug at their expense or under
their orders. The miners, i'll most in
stances, have been very badly treated, both
by official OyerSeerS and private capitalists,
and have taken their revenge on their en-
ployers by decelving them to such an extent
as to ruin them. Their mode of operation
i'm this respect has usually been to expend
all the available capital in getting very poor
Ore-in some cases no ore at all-and
leaving columns of the best paying ore
standing in various. parts of the under
ground working, easily accessible when
ever it was desired. In this manner the
miners have almost invariably succeeded
in eXhauStinE the resources, as well as the
patience, of the officials and capitalists.
with the result that they have been forced
to abandon the mines as unprOfitable in
vestments, and the miners were disbanded
and driven away without pay. After en-
during suffering quietly for a time, the
miners managed TO repay themselves for
their former trouble by extracting in quiet
way the ore they had left in the mines and
selling it to petty local manufacturers, or
themselves coming money, sometimes of
superior weight and quality to the legal
Government issue.
"The prefecture of Li-chang Fu," con-
tinues the Consul, 'is very rich in minerals
of various sorts. God has been washed
out of the bed of the great river known to
foreigners as the Yan2tZe, and which is
locally designated as the Klin-sha kiang,
or river of golden sand. The gold wash
ers are usually Tibetans or halfbreeds, but
many Chinese encroach on Iibetan terri
tory to wash for gold and are usually re-
warded for their efforts by good finds. The
gold is nuggetty, the nuggets running from
the finest grains to the size of peas and
beans. 1t is nearly pure, and was valued
in 1877 at Ia times its weight in silver.
The same gold at that time was worth 16
to II times its weight in silver in other parts
of China. have used the word 'encroach-
ing because these parts of the prefecture
of Li-chang were formerly parts of Tibet,
and the gold found there to this day is
generally admitted to belong to the Tibetan
lamas or 10 their monasterieS. Gold is,
however, found in tributaries of the Kin
sha Kiang, which are nearly independent
of the lamas; but the Chinese officials are so
exacting that the washers do not find it
profitable work, and washing is carried on
under the milder rule of the lamas, eSpeci
ally in the subprefecture called Chung-tien
Ting, where most of the population is of
Tibetan origin. Silver, copper. lead, iron
and coal are also found in Li-Chiang Flu;
silver is said to abound in Wei-hSi Ting,
another subprefecture OF Li-Chiang Flu,
bordering en- Assam, or very near it. The
silver ore is very easily found and worked.
was told that the ore on being thrown into
an ordinary backsmith's forge or hearth,
was readily melted, the lead running off