The State gives concessions for mines for fifty years upon a sufficient number of mining-fields each of 100,000 square metres, the boundaries of which are fixed by a special commission. To obtain a concession it must first be proved that there are undoubted traces of minerals; that the capital is sufficient, and a plan of the proposed works has to be furnished. The concessionaire, after fifteen years of uninterrupted work, becomes proprietor, but he must continue to pay the mining duties, and of course conform to the Mining Law. Both the prospector and the concessionaire are obliged to work regularly, take proper precautions for the well-being and personal safety of their workpeople, report annually upon work executed, and furnish each year plans for next year’s work. There must be no mining beneath roads, water-courses, buildings, or cemeteries. All rights of research and all concessions are lost if the specified work is not executed within the first year, or is interrupted without a reason approved by the Minister, or by bankruptcy. The State, in order to encourage industry, favours the importation of all machinery and material for use in mines, as well as the exportation of the ore obtained, and gives many other advantages to the concessionaire. Of late, Belgrade has been overrun with foreign concession-hunters, most of them of the adventurer type. I met several of them in Belgrade. In my conversation with the Ministers I quickly learnt that the Government, fully alive to the great mineral resources of their country, and confident in the great wealth that must in a few years accrue, will have absolutely nothing to do with any person who comes to them without introduction. In Belgrade, I repeat, the doors are closed to the irresponsible concession-hunter, but at once open to anyone who on being introduced can show his _bona fides_ and that he has capital behind him. In the course of my inquiries into the mineral wealth I had a number of conversations with Mr. J. R. Finney, Ass. I. M. & M., an English mining engineer who has spent seventeen years in prospecting and working mines in Servia. No one knows more about mines and traces of minerals in the country than he. He pointed out to me that the mineral deposits of Servia have been worked to a very great extent from very early times, as the remains of Roman and Venetian works prove and the enormous slag-heaps found in various parts of the country. He himself has on many occasions found, while prospecting, rude ancient implements, bones, etc. Of the ancient Roman workings, copper, galena, and silver were obtained at Kopaonik; at Rudnik, lead, silver, and zinc were mined; at Kucajna, gold, silver, zinc, and coal, while alluvial gold is to be found all along the Pek River, and especially where it joins the Danube. This gold has, he said, evidently been worked down in course of time from a rich quartz reef which is known by certain persons, including himself, to exist.