York Lo left a comment below our article, Lui Che Woo – King of Hong Kong Quarries – two newspaper articles, linked below, which adds additional infomation about Lui Che-woo and Anderson Road quarry in an SCMP article. The article begins: Tycoon Lui Che-woo, a pioneer in Hong Kong’s quarrying industry who later built his wealth in the property and casino industries, […]
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HF: Anderson Road Quarry is located on the southwestern slopes of Chin Lan Chu in Kowloon, covering an area of 86 hectares with a working surface up to a height of 200 metres and horizontal extension of 1,500 metres. Quarrying of granite first started in 1956, supplying the urban development of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Origin of Anderson Road […]
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HF: Our recently posted article, Beryl Mining at Devil’s Peak, brought forward a comment from Fiona Soliman which I repost here: Thank you for a fascinating article. I am currently researching my family tree, and among some of my grandfather’s documents I discovered a mini-autobiography in which he explains that, while he served in Hong Kong with the RAEC in 1952-55, […]
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Tymon Mellor: In February, 1951 The International Tin Study Group, an industry body for the tin industry wrote to the Hong Kong Government requesting information about tin mining activity in the territory. A report by the US Office of International Trade on Hong Kong economic activity in 1949 had indicated that Hong Kong had an annual tin ore production of […]
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HF: From our archives with thanks to IDJ for the source of information. “Stonebreakers in the early twentieth century. Granite in Hong Kong is of high quality and abundant. As a common construction material for columns, door frames and floors, the demand for granite was large. Because of its weight granite was transported by stone-boat by water from the quarry […]
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“Mount Butler quarry is located between Jardine’s Lookout and Sin Ma Shan on Hong Kong Island. The quarry started operation in the 1940s and ceased operation in the 1990s. Part of the quarry is now the base of [the] Explosive Ordinance Disposal Bureau for handling Nd storage of explosives; while part of the site is the Firing Range of the […]
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Introduction Tymon Mellor: One hundred years ago this year, according to records, mining for Wolframite (or Wolfram as it used to be called), commenced at Needle Hill, possibly one of the oldest and most extensive industrial historical sites in Hong Kong. The mine workings now lie abandoned and overgrown on the hillsides above the Lower Shing Mun Reservoir. If you […]
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One of the smaller mines in Hong Kong is located at Ho Chung, near Sai Kung, where Wolfram, the ore of Tungsten was exploited in small quantities over many years. The village of Ho Chung was founded around 1550, farming rice in the terraced valley. After the First World War, mining of the ore commenced and continued intermittently until the […]
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Tymon Mellor: In 1955 mineral prices were on the rise and there was a large influx of new population into Hong Kong, mineral extraction and mine development was a growth industry. Sensational mining stories and corruption were not uncommon. In April, 1955 an amateur geologist, Corporal William Bruce Harries, of the Royal Army Educational Corps discovered a deposit of Beryl […]
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Tymon Mellor: On the 28th March, 1886, the first of many blasts was initiated at the Mui Wo silver mine. The owner, Mr Ho A Mei (see Part One of this article linked below) wanted to extract the galena ore to aid in the mineral processing of the richer ore from a Mainland mine of his. The mineral processing facility […]
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