A little more information about a mine that, at least above ground, was demolished when the new Hong Kong International Airport was built. 1952 Mine site was operated by Tin Bo Mining Development Corp. Later, the mine changed its name or had its equity transferred to Ng Fuk Black Lead Mining Co. Ltd. to continue its operation. During its early […]
» Read more
Hugh Farmer: The mine was in the bottom left hand (SW) corner of the island (apologies for a fuzzy picture that resembles shark’s fin soup) West Brother Island lies to the north east of HK International Airport. I have read an account that the graphite was discovered in the early 1950s by fishermen who were looking for sandstone to make […]
» Read more
Tymon Mellor: Development of a modern mine at Castle Peak to extract Wolframite or Tungsten ore was awaited with much anticipation by the Colonial Government, but following a number of failed ventures and after much illicit mining, nothing came to pass. Mining Lot No. 12 was returned to Government and the area absorbed into the Ha Tsuen/Castle Peak Firing Range. […]
» Read more
Tymon Mellor: Immediately after the end of the Pacific War, the price of graphite, a form of carbon, peaked before declining as the world demand for steel dropped. Following the successful exploitation of graphite on West Brother Island, a number of licences were issued to allow the prospecting for Graphite throughout the New Territories during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Prospecting […]
» Read more
Tymon Mellor: To some, the workings at Cha Kwo Ling were not a mine as there was no shaft or entrance, but there was a large open excavation to remove a local occurrence of the mineral kaolin or ‘China Clay’. As one of the longest operating mines in Hong Kong, from 1928 to its closure in 1983 the mine had […]
» Read more
The Chinese Engineering & Mining Company Limited was established in 1900 to mine coal for steamships in the area around Tientsin, China. The company was reformed in 1912 as a public company registered in London. Also in 1912 the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company and the Lanchow Mining Company Limited formed the Kailan Mining Administration to administer the coal mines. […]
» Read more
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 […]
» Read more
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 […]
» Read more
York Lo: From 1903 to 1983, kaolin clay was mined in a quarry in Cha Kwo Ling, a village near Kwun Tong facing the harbor. The 19 acre mine was operated by Hong Kong Clays and Kaolin Company (香港磁泥有限公司)… …In post War Hong Kong, George McBain operated out of the South China Morning Post Building in Central and the primary operation […]
» Read more
IDJ has sent the following newspaper article about what he calls “Hong Kong’s Klondike”. If you are not familiar with this: The Klondike Gold Rush was a migration by an estimated 100,000 prospectors to the Klondike region of Yukon, in north-western Canada, between 1896 and 1899. The image below comes from Tymon Mellor’s article, Lin Fa Shan Mine, linked below, and bears a passing resemblance, except for the […]
» Read more