The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-03-10
DIGGING FOR %ToURMALINE.
How the Mines of Burma Arc Worked.
Some Rare Finds.

Tourmaline is a beautiful mineral
known according to it's color by a va
riety of names. The red is rubellite,
the pale blue or blush black is indico-
lite, the Berlin blu is called by jewell
ers Brazilian emerald, and so on.
'"Tourmaline is found in separate
crystals in the interstices OF hard
granite looking rock" says the London
Globe. AS a consequence men with
no means find it occasionally profitable
when they have leisure to dig down
eight or ten feet on the off chance CT
finding some not very valuable bits
says c.. s.. George, deputy commissioner,
Ruby Mines District. Burma. This sys-
tenn is called Katie talk or Katie fys-
TEN. after the idea of the original ruby
diggings at Kathe. The next method is
tho ordinary Twinlon method of sink
ing a vertical shaft about four or five
feet quarc BY custom the owner of
the shaft is entitled to extend his work
ings underground anywhere to a radius
of five fathoms from the centre of the
shaft.
THE vein Is formed by a vein of
white. hard granite rock, in the inter
stices of which the tourmaline is found,
at times adhering loosely TO the rock,
at others lying separate in the loose
yellowish earth that is found with the
granite. When a vein is once found it
is followed up as far as possible, sub
ject to the five fathcm limit alluded to
above. What, however. makes the min
ing so exciting n at the same time
keeps the industry f~luctuating is that
the tourmaline crystals are only found
intermittently in the vein.
One may get several in the length Of
one yard, and then they will unac-
countably cease. Directly one man
strikes a vein yielding crystals everyone
who can commences digging along the
line of the vein, but it is all a toss-up
as to whether, when the vein is reached,
there win be tourmaline therein. Ad-
Joining Twinlons give absolutely diff
ferent results, and 1t is calculated h Ia
at least two-thirds of the shafts sunk
yield nothing at all, while only an oc-
c~asional one is at all rich
OF the sixty-two Twinlons at the
time of Mr.. Georges visit only three
were yielding, and Of these only one
Duu Traces III lllt DtSt QudAiAS SACiiN'
The veins are fairly deep down, rome
having ever been reached at a lesser
depth than nine fathoms, while an or
binary depth is forty or fiftey cubtts;
when the vein takes a downward direc-
ton it is followed as far as possible
but that is rarely over about sixty GU
bits, for at that depth the foulness Of
the air puts the lamps out.
THE vein is said rarely, if ever, to
show an outcrop, and it is a matter 81
pure speculation where to dig" said
Mr.. George. As the whole place is COW
cred with jungle, prospecting any way
would be laborious. There have beer
three finds, each causing a rush. Tine
first was seven years ago at Hpai Bains
Milaunggon), about a mile to the soutf
of the present place and near where The
Chinese had worked formerly. The rex
was a year or two later at HtauNat be
tween Milaunggon and Sanka.
Then there were three or four lear
Years. and then, early in 1905, on
Konhkan struck a vein. near Sanks
village, which has atracted the present
growth of population to Maingnln, but
as explained above, though the ares
within 100 wards of Konhkan's oriSina
shaft is honeycombed with pits, ONLY
three are yielding, n Konhkans twn
has ceased to yield. All the materla
dug out from the inside Twinlon Il
pulled up to the surface in small buck
cts. all worked by enormously IONS
pivoted bamboos worked with a couh'
~ter-poise. and the tourmaline is sorfee
out of hand, the granite fragments be
ing piled in a wall around the moutt