Nigeria and its tin fieldsCalvert, Albert Frederick
History
Nigeria and its tin fields
Calvert, Albert Frederick
Tin mines and mining -- Nigeria
“Most of the concentrates were obtained from the plateaux of Tilde,
Rukuba, Joss, and Ngell. On the first three of these the principal
surveyor reports that the Niger Company has prospecting camps. The finest
grained tinstone is found on the Tilde plateau, the coarser material
coming from Joss and Ngell. The tinstone is said to be irregularly
distributed, and adjoining pits may furnish such different yields as
10 lbs., or less, and 400 lbs. per ton on gravel worked. The average
yield at the Rukuba camp is 25 lbs. per ton. The present works, it is
stated, are all in the near neighbourhood of the river Delimi, but it
appears that the gravels are more or less rich in tin over the whole
surface of the plateau. The river-beds in some cases contain valuable
tinstone-bearing gravels, as is shown by the results of the analysis
of the concentrate from the river-bed at Tilde, which contained 68 per
cent. of tinstone. That from beyond Joss contained only 40 per cent. of
tinstone, possibly owing to the difficulty of separating the ilmenite
from the tinstone by washing. The concentrate from the Kende River
consisted almost entirely of ilmenite. The presence of the latter mineral
in the stream beds will introduce a difficulty in the concentration of
the tinstone, as it is not readily distinguishable by inspection from
tinstone, and collects with it in the first concentration.
“The results so far obtained show that tinstone is widely distributed
in the province of Bauchi in the alluvium of both the high and low
plateaux. As these tinstone districts are in process of being prospected,
it is scarcely worth while to discuss the commercial value of the tin
concentrates here, but it may be pointed out that several of these
concentrates contain monazite, and this may be worth recovering.
The amount of monazite present is usually small, and it is scarcely
likely that its recovery under present circumstances would pay for the
working of an electro-magnetic concentrator, which would be required to
effect its separation. If, however, it becomes necessary to use such
concentrators in order to separate the ilmenite, which occurs with the
tinstone, then it would probably be worth while to recover the monazite
as a by-product.
“The question of the origin of the tinstone occurring in this region
is of great interest, and the officers of the Survey propose to devote
further attention to the subject.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account