CORNISH TIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 August 1942, Page 4

CORNISH TIN

MINES BEING WORKED AGAIN

HELPING TO MEET WAR NEEDS. WITH FAR EASTERN SUPPLIES CUT OFF. (By Melita Spraggs, in the “Christian Science Monitor.’’) The Japanese seizure of Malayan tin mines in the Far East is putting Cornwall's 2,000-year-old mining industry on the map once more. The thick undergrowth which covered many of the gaunt shafts of abandoned mines near Camborne and Redruth is being torn aside by workers from ihe Ministry of Supply, in their probe of the possibilities of restoring the industry. Britain needs more than 30,000 tons of tin annually arid Cornish miners are eager to help. The throb of pumps at work is beginning to break the silence which has enveloped many of the mines for a quarter of a century. The old brick shafts, standing on the moors or nestling among the rocks — as much a feature of the Cornish landscape as the white mounds which mark China-clay workings—are a relic of a prosperous past. Though historians feel it is improbable that the Phoenicians ever worked the tin mines of Cornwall (as some history books affirm), authorities agree that the industry goes back for 2,000 years. The most prosperous days were round about the 1870's when Cornwall, with more than 200 mines at work producing 10.000 tens a year, was the world’s largest source of tin and copper. DECLINE & REVIVAL. Discovery of rich alluvial deposits in the Far East, however, caused a grave decline in the British tin industry. The mines of the Orient could be worked by cheap native labour, and one single ship could bring to these islands as much tin as the Cornwall mines could produce in t.wo years. The first World War brought a temporary revival to the industry. At the peak of production in these years nearly a dozen mines were at work, with an output of some 6.000 tons of tin oxide a year. After the war the price of tin dropped from £4OO io £l5O a ton. At least halt of the existing Cornish mines were forced to close down, largely owing to the high cost of coal needed for the power to pump them free of water. At the outbreak of the present war, the number of producing properties had been reduced to four. In 1940, the latest year for which statistics are available, the output of Cornish tin was only 1,500 tons. World production was then 237,600 tons, of which, 85,384 tons came from Malaya, and 40,000 tons from the Netherlands East Indies. Though the need for speedy restoration of the Cornish industry is urgent, the task bristles with difficulties. Only the alluvial ground and shallow workings can be brought bacit into production quickly. The deeper - abandoned mines have to be counted out of immediate production, as they may take up to two years to dry out: and bring to the producing stage. THE NEED OF WORKERS. The great need is for workers. The tendency has been for the miners for decades to seek other fields of activity. In the early years of the century Johannesburg and Kimberley mines called the Cornish tin worker. Driven by the knowledge that the local mines were declining in importance he sought his fortune overseas. At the outbreak of war in 1939, there were 10,000 thi miners at work in Cornwall but since then men have been drifting away from the industry into the armed forces or to better-paid war work. It was not until the middle of 1941, when most of the young men had gone, that the Ministry of Labour reserved tin miners again and promised to “direct” others to the mines. Cornwall is still awaiting more workers. Part of the work in these mines cannot be done without skilled labour, and it is felt that this can only be provided by a return of trained miners from the Forces, or by bringing them back from other industries. AN OFFICIAL BAN. But in modern mining, it is pointed out, there is also a large amount which can be done by unskilled labour, working under supervision. It has been suggested that, for this, Italian prisoners might serve. But here the War Office steps in. According to official regulations, prisoners can only be grouped in large camps, and nowhere within 20 miles of the coast. As many of the Cornish mineshafts are covered by the spray of the waves at high tide and at many places the. County is less than 20 miles from coast to coast, this order effectively rules out employment of prisoners in Cornwall. It is suggested that the mines should be requisitioned by the Government, that the price of tin be raised by order, and men in far larger numbers brought in, or back to, the industry. Then, it is felt, though Cornwall will not be able to produce, supplies on the scale they were imported from the Far East, she will at least be able to mine tin in sufficient quantities appreciably to help Britain’s war effort.