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Show TIN A Precious Metal By. A. Spencer Cragoe, A. M. M. I. Liskeard, Cornwall, England (Continued from last week) ' Post-War Slump Disasterous TJie far-reached post-war "islump" of 1920-21 had disastrous effect on Corninh mining, as well as indutsry at large England, from a rich creditor, cred-itor, has become a poor (if honest) debtor nation today; and must long remain so. Stil two or three resolute and once wealthy mining finance houses yet back Cornish mines so far as their means allow; and incidentally pay up to 25 per cent, and more, in yearly dividends; so keeping their shares at about 100 per cent over par. But this mining field these very great opportunities languish for three main causes: Low Prices Cause Shut-Downs '' Cause 1. At Intervals from about the year 1870 to the 1900 notoriously notorious-ly for the greater part of the last ten years of this period, during the first "skimming"- of the rich Malay alluv-ials alluv-ials the price of tin ruled so low (less than one-fifth of its price today; to-day; 30 against 250) that those mines which had not already developed devel-oped large bodies of abnormally rich ore to offset the crisis, shut down. They are shut down to this day about 90 per cent of them Among this 90 per cent there are some scores of properties, to be cheaply and easily acquired, with all the "earmarks' "ear-marks' of winners: workings of anything any-thing from, say, 60 to 300 feet in depth large lodeb of ore-bodies already "shown-up," if not "blocked out" and carrying excellent values in tin. It would appear almost incredible, time being. What little money there is, is in the hands of people who care nothing whatever for the welfare of their own country and, as far as mining min-ing goes, will only look at a venture which is "far afield" around which romances can be written for stockjobbing stock-jobbing purposes, something in the wilds of Alaska, in the Great Jungle of the Congo, in the remotest region of any one of the five continents; but not at home. Five hours from London by main line express, is inconveniently near by! but such are the facts. Land Owners Prevent Development Cause 2. In Great Britain, unhappily, unhap-pily, the surface proprietor the land owner owns all mineral beneath that land. The big majority of land owners have been reasonable people and "mining rights" overing anything from a few up to (occasionally) some thousands of acres have been and are granted for terms of 21 to 63 years, as may be desired. A quite nom inal "dead rental" of anything say, from 25 to 100 sterling yearly (exeunt (ex-eunt in the case of verv larire areas! is all that is payable until the mine produces. The "dead rent" then merges merg-es into the land owenrs "royalty" upon up-on all mineral sold the usual figure being now one-thirtieth, 3 and one third per cent.' These conditions are easy and they are "entirely simple. Title is perfect per-fect and unquestionable. There has been no case of litigation in respect of title the bane and curse of so many mining fields for, I believe, generation. . All this it to the good. But there have been a minority of land owners who, even today, will have no mining min-ing done on their estates! Year in, year out one generation after another, sometimes for a century cen-tury or more, they have maintained this arbitrary and despotic attitude and there is no appeal I Hence it comes about (and one can give chapter and verse of quite a large number of instances) where a rich lode a whole series of lodes have been worked, continuously, sometimes some-times for miles and to great depths, man's boundaries 1" It is known the lodes pass through this estate, for they ' are not only traceable therein at surface, but have been again worked work-ed where they pass out of it, but, "therein and under" no mining has been allowed. Estate Now Open The World War with a few notable not-able exceptions who refiled the Government Gov-ernment even while the conflict raged rag-ed (nothing short of an act of Parliament Par-liament upsetting the whole landten-ure landten-ure of England could have ' upset them) has about put an end to this. One estate after another (due to the terrific taxation of this type of property) prop-erty) hasv come on the market, and the new owners are themselves, desirous de-sirous of disposing, in some manner, of their mineral rights. Many Poven Lodes In this way, in addition to the scores of shallow, but more Or less proved under "cause 1," there are a large number, perhaps as many as a hundred or more cases of most at- tractive, entirely virgin properties to be taken up and exploited on the same easy terms. And these lodes are also proved, right up to the "boundaries" of the estate in question. Once more, it seems incredible, but once more these are the facts. They depend on no one's "say-so." Far Fields Look Greener Cause 3. With the exception of the one or two mining finance houses in London already spoken of, controlling Geevor, South Crofty, East Poo! and other profit-earning, dividend-paying and flourishing properties in West Cornwall, to which particular district they naturally desire to attract attention, at-tention, (though the mines there are no richer, and are considerably deeper and thus wetter than elsewhere) there is no real "backing" for home mining min-ing in Britain today. This is lamentable, and the reason thereof is two-fold. From a rich country, as stated, it has become . a, poor country, for the |
