1910,” have already been published in Nigeria, but they are not yet
obtainable in this country, and I am privileged to be able to reproduce
a copy of them as an appendix to this book. From this document it will
be seen that a prospector must either take out a prospecting right, which
costs £5 per annum, and entitles the holder to explore for minerals
in those parts of the Protectorate not already leased or reserved by
Government notice, or an exclusive licence to prospect within an area
not exceeding 16 square miles for a fee of £5 per square mile. Mining
leases are only granted to holders of either one of these permits, who,
upon application, must show that _bonâ fide_ prospecting operations
have been carried on on the area applied for, and that they possess or
command sufficient working capital to ensure the proper development
and working of the mine. Leases of tin areas, which are granted for a
term up to twenty-one years, with the option to renew for a further
twenty-one years, are three in number, viz., lode mining leases, which
may be obtained up to a maximum of thirty claims of 80,000 square feet
per claim, at the rental of £4 per claim per annum; alluvial mining
leases, not exceeding 800 acres in area, with a minimum width throughout
of 400 yards, at a rate of 5s. per acre per annum; and stream mining
leases, which shall be confined to the bed of a stream, not exceeding one
mile in length, at a rental of £1 per 100 yards per annum. Penalties in
the shape of fines or imprisonment are to be inflicted for prospecting
without a licence or working a mine without a lease, for interfering with
a prospector in the exercise of his rights, for giving false information
in an application for a mining lease, or for “salting” a mine, and the
Government reserve the power to cancel a prospecting right or revoke
a mining lease for certain breaches of the new regulations. Over and
above the fees charged for yearly rental of leases, the holder is by
statute required to pay a royalty of 5 per cent. to the Niger Company on
the value of all metal won, and another royalty of 5 per cent. to the
Government, who collect their royalty in the form of export duty.
LABOUR
A population estimated at seven to nine millions is already on the land,
and although their labour would not be very efficient so far as skilled
work is concerned, there is plenty of rough work to be done, for which
about 6d. per day is paid. The costs of treatment are not expected to
exceed 6d. per cubic yard. When it is remembered that it is possible for
one property to contain many hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of
alluvial wash, and that this alluvial tinstone is worth approximately
10d. per lb. at the present time, it will be realised that with the
working costs at the liberal figure of 6d. per cubic yard, there is a
very considerable margin of profit in these undertakings.
Mr. J. Tomson says of the natives that they make very good labourers:
“They insist on being paid with English money, ‘threepenny bits’ being
very popular. They have no liking for gold, and do not consider it so
valuable as silver. The pagans, who are the farming class, appear to be
a most industrious people. They still live in fear of invading Fulani,
and always take their bows and arrows with them to the field. Neither men
nor women wear dress of any kind. They have a juju or secret oath which
forbids them to put on any garment. With these people the missionaries
make no headway at all. Neither do they with the Mohammedans.”
The manager of the Lucky Chance Mines, reporting under date 29th August,
said he was still paying 6d. per day for ordinary labour, and so far
he had had little trouble with the men on day wages, although they had
several times tried to get him to raise the rate of pay.
Reporting on a property at Juga in the tin district, Mr. Huddart says:
“The properties are very favourably situated to obtain labour. The men
from Bauchi and the east come along the main caravan route looking
for work to enable them to earn money to pay the taxes, &c. As this
particular property is near the market, and the men usually halt at the
market, they can easily be recruited. The cost of ordinary labour is
1d. per hour, and is easily trained. The Bornu and Eastern Kanuri are,
in my opinion, the best workers available. A further advantage lies in
the position of the property in settled country under the control of the
Filani Emir of Bauchi, and the men prefer this to the pagan country.”
Referring to another property about twenty miles further south, Mr.
Huddart says:
“When all is in proper working order, I am convinced that ample labour
will be forthcoming, as the property is favourably situated in that it
can tap the Angass country and the western part of Bornu, as well as
the eastern Bauchi territory. When the proper camps are made, markets
organised, and the natives learn that a certain income awaits them, I
feel sure that labour will come in without any difficulty, and I speak
as one knowing their language and having an intimate knowledge of the
conditions.”
Mr. H. W. Laws, General Mining Manager of the Niger Company, in his
report to the Bisichi Company, whose property is near Naraguta, says:
“There is a good supply of labour in the country; owing to a sudden
increase in the demand for labour a temporary shortage was reported this
wet season, but the labour market is now rapidly recovering, and in view
of the very large amount of labour available in the Hausa States, and the
Province of Bornu, no difficulties need be anticipated as to the supply
in future.”
The concensus of opinions held by men who understand the amount and
nature of the work entailed in this particular form of mining, and are,
at the same time, personally familiar with the material that the country
has to offer for the purpose, shows that the supply of labour in Northern
Nigeria is entirely adequate, and although the development of West Africa
depends almost entirely upon the labour question, there is no prospect
of any difficulty on this account. Mr. Astley Cooper believes the chief
grounds upon which trouble might arise, are the desire of the majority
of the natives not to do too much work, the fear that a few months’
work in the mines would give a native sufficient money to live on for a
year or two, and the difficulty of getting the right sort of European
to take charge of the native labourers. But after all there is little
reason to anticipate trouble on any one of these counts. No native in any
part of the globe does more work than he is kindly but firmly obliged to
perform, and there is no necessity for employers to demoralise the native
labourers by a policy of over-payment. But the necessity of employing
the right sort of European to put in control over the natives is quite
to the point. The West African is more domestic than the Kaffir—of whom
there are over 200,000 at work in the Transvaal mines—and there is no
more willing worker if he has the proper white man over him. But it is
the duty of the Government and the trading companies, and the mining
corporations, to select the right men for their purpose, and if they are
wise in this respect there need be no fear of labour troubles in either
Southern or Northern Nigeria.
THE FUTURE OF THE FIELD
The published opinions of Government officials, engineers of repute,
capitalists, traders, and travellers, all tend to prove that in Northern
Nigeria we have one of the largest, if not the very largest, of the
tin-producing areas of the world. Other minerals are known to exist,
and very big developments may be looked for in the near future, as the
pioneering efforts of the Niger Company and the Champion Gold Reefs of
West Africa are being followed by powerful financial houses, but alluvial
tin stands out, and will always stand out, as the leading product of this
remarkable mineral country.
Two such astute men and persons so well acquainted with the country as
Sir Walter Egerton, the Governor of Southern Nigeria, and the late Sir
Alfred Jones, have expressed the strongest views as to the extent and
importance of these tin deposits, and the acting Governor of Northern
Nigeria in his latest report asserted that “with the introduction of more
capital and a good means of transport from the field to the railway a
very large development is anticipated.”
Mr. Lush says the Bauchi tin deposits are richer than he has seen in
any part of the world. It is, he says, a granite country, and although
the existence of reefs has been proved in one part of the district, the
alluvial deposits—which yield tin oxide containing about 72 per cent. of
metallic tin—are of principal importance.
ALLUVIAL AND LODE MINING
Alluvial mining, has, of course, the demerit of being short-lived. There
is no great depth in the deposits, and especially if they are worked
economically—that is to say rapidly—they are exhausted in a comparatively
short time. But the attention directed to the district in these alluvial
workings will certainly lead to the discovery and opening-up of the
tin lodes, which in course of time should prove a more lasting source
of supply than the alluvials. Indeed, at two points, two tin lodes are
already being opened up, and before long a good idea should be obtained
of their value. The interests at work in the district will certainly see
that every chance is given to this side of the business, but, of course,
development upon a lode is very different work to that upon alluvial
deposits, and progress may be slower in their case. It is very unlikely,
with such an enormous area of stanniferous gravels, that lodes of
importance should not be discovered as time goes on, and there appears to
be no doubt that the tin production of Nigeria will become quite a factor
in the markets of the world. Many things will have to happen before lode
producing can be carried out upon a large scale, but as the alluvials
are worked out, the labour employed upon them can be concentrated upon
the most lasting deposits, and the operations of the alluvial miners
should produce a working population which should be fitted to deal with
the higher form of mining. Certain facilities will doubtless be given
to the district, and some idea of the importance and the developments
in this part of Nigeria can be gathered from the fact that the Bank
of British West Africa has been earnestly invited to open an office
in Bauchi. At present this matter is under consideration, since it is
difficult to fix upon a spot which will be most suitable for such an
institution to work, but before long it is probable that the tin-mining
district will have the facilities offered by a bank.
THE GENERAL PROSPECTS
Mr. Oliver Wethered, whose name is so well known in connection with the
tin industry, has described to a meeting of shareholders the peculiar
advantages of the country which is now attracting the attention of the
tin markets of the world, and in the course of his address he said:
“Now as to the country in which our interests are centred, judging by the
information that I have received from all available quarters, I have no
hesitation in stating that we are interested in one of the most important
virgin alluvial tin fields the world has ever seen, and certainly the
most important that capitalists have had an opportunity of working as
a new field. In Tasmania, Australia, and other countries which have
produced large quantities of alluvial tin, the prospectors have gone in
by hundreds, and even thousands, and have washed out large quantities of
tin greatly to their own individual benefit. Subsequently the ground has
been worked over and over again, and in recent years again re-worked by
means of modern appliances. I may say here, that in Cornwall some of the
ground must have been worked eight or ten times, and big plants are now
being erected for the purpose of working it again by modern methods. It
will be obvious to every one that with a practically untouched field,
and working in the most economical and thorough way from the start, the
results cannot fail to be extremely satisfactory.
“Undoubtedly one of the factors which has delayed the opening up of the
tin fields of Nigeria has been the question of economical transport. But
the Nigeria tin is of very high quality. It fetches, as a rule, anywhere
from £6 to £8 more a ton than Cornish tin, and in this connection I
should like to read an extract from a letter which was written to me by
the managing director of the largest tin smelting works in Europe, to
whom I sent a sample of the tin oxide as it was received here, and of
which, in acknowledging it, he says, ‘It is about 75 per cent. metallic
tin, of excellent quality, equal to anything being put on the market, so
far as my observation goes.’ I am very closely connected with Cornish
mining, and there we get Bolivian, Straits, and all kinds of tin, and
it is the general opinion that Nigerian tin is one of the very best
tins imported into Europe, and will always command a price equal to, if
not better than, that of the Straits. Even under existing conditions
alluvial tin mining in Nigeria is a highly profitable business, but
when the present railway system is completed, and the road made from
the Government line to the tin field, the freight should be reduced by
many pounds per ton, and the profit largely increased. The completion of
the road would enable heavy machinery to be brought to the mines, when
larger quantities of the rich alluvial ground would be handled in an
economical way, and the work done at a cost much below what is possible
under existing conditions. The lodes, too, of which there is undoubted
evidence, could be worked. Meanwhile some machinery can be transported in
sections, and the output of tin should be rapidly increased and the costs
greatly reduced.”
Mr. Assheton Lever, in summing up the situation generally in Northern
Nigeria to a meeting of shareholders, said:
“We know that there are considerable areas there which in some cases are
very rich in alluvial tin. There are also tin lodes there; but that for
the present is another story, because alluvial tin is a thing which is
easily and comparatively inexpensively worked, whereas to work a lode
mine requires good means of transport, and to be able to get up to the
mines easily expensive and heavy machinery. We have a good climate, we
have a sufficiency of water, and so far as we can ascertain, we have a
sufficiency of native labour. All the companies which are interested in
Northern Nigeria appear anxious to co-operate, and are willing to work
together generally for their mutual benefit, and for the tin industry in
particular.”
Mr. H. W. Lake, the consulting engineer, speaking in a professional
capacity at the same meeting, referred to the phenomenal richness of
the river banks in the tin district in Northern Nigeria, while very rich
alluvials are found on the flats, and when it comes to investigation of
the river banks themselves very much larger quantities of black tin to
the cubic yard are won. “I am speaking now,” he added, “from a certain
amount of experience, because four years ago we had an expedition in the
Bauchi district, and our engineer obtained some quite remarkable results
from the alluvial. Of course, it is a new country. There is a great deal
of pioneering work to be done, and what we have still to look forward
to is steady systematic organisation for the next year or two. We do
not want to make the mistakes that have been made in the opening up of
many new countries—some of them not very far from Nigeria—but we do want
to settle down to steady systematic development. As far as the railway
is concerned, there seems no doubt that we shall have a line into the
tin fields, which is going to simplify the question of transport, and
reduce the costs very materially. With regard to the actual working of
these alluvials, to begin with, I am of opinion that we should use the
simplest methods possible—ground sluicing and so forth, but there will
come a time when we shall have very seriously to consider the question
of hydraulicing and treating these alluvials on a very much larger scale
than would be possible by means of sluicing.”
A DISTRICT FULL OF NARAGUTAS
The extraordinary results obtained by the Naraguta Company might be
regarded as exceptional, since it was a proved mine when taken over from
the Niger Company, and the actual work done upon it has only confirmed
what was previously known of its phenomenal value. But it may be said
with great confidence, after careful examination, by not one, but many
engineers, that the picture is not in any degree overdrawn. Moreover, the
head of a great firm of mining engineers who was inclined to ridicule
the values reported, has since admitted that he has altogether changed
his opinion, and that he thinks from advices he has received, that the
Malay Peninsula fields, even in their palmiest days, were never “in it”
with the Northern Nigerian alluvial tin fields. In one place tin has been
taken out, on the Dubbo property, belonging to the Lucky Chance Mines,
extending over 640 acres, which actually goes 120 lbs. to the cubic
yard. That is to say, that the calabashers must be getting out tin almost
pure. This may be only a pocket; but the whole character of the reports
from the fields makes it perfectly certain that the general nature of
the Bauchi district, where the alluvial tin is mostly found, is of an
absolutely phenomenal character.
There is no doubt whatever that in this remote district of Nigeria, which
until a few years ago, was closed to the white man by the ferocity of its
inhabitants, nature has been concentrating tin for thousands and tens of
thousands of years, until we have it now in very large quantities in an
almost pure condition. To Sir Percy Girouard is largely due the honour of
opening up this country, through the discipline he and his subordinates
dealt out to the original inhabitants. To his successor, Sir Hesketh
Bell, fell the duty and the honour of opening up further the country by a
railway system which will make it a great Imperial acquisition.
The work of Sir Percy Girouard and Sir Hesketh Bell may be specially
referred to, for they represent the Imperial Government; but we must not
forget the work of the directors of the pioneer companies in London, who
must have worked continually to do what they have done. In the short
space of only twelve months they have accomplished an amount of work
which ordinary directors without enthusiasm would have taken years to
do. The country has been searched for good properties, engineers have
been despatched and machinery ordered, and such is the good work done
in a small way with high values, that it is no exaggeration to say that
many properties are now paying their way. All has been so swiftly done,
and with so little fuss, that it seems like a fairy tale, and the public
have no conception yet of the extraordinary value of these alluvial tin
propositions in Northern Nigeria.
POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL OUTLOOK
It is satisfactory to gather from the report of the acting Governor
dated 11th December last, that the year 1909 was a very peaceful one,
the military operations which it was found necessary to carry out being
on a small scale, and chiefly on account of highway robberies. From all
the Provinces it is reported that the general feeling of the Emirs and
native chiefs towards the British Administration continues to be most
friendly. They are beginning to show an intelligent interest and zeal in
the political work, and political officers are receiving support in any
scheme proposed for the improvement of the Native Administration. The
people show signs of wishing to be on friendly terms with the Government,
and the agricultural classes are feeling a sense of security which
enables them to spread out in all directions and take up new holdings.
Their present position is described as “one of progressive tranquillity
and content.” The inter-colonial traffic in slaves has already ceased;
local slave-dealing is not entirely stamped out, but it is not extensive,
and last year 1,392 slaves were freed, practically all by means of native
courts, the majority of these ex-slaves being self-redeemed.
The cultivation of food stuffs has increased; new markets have been
established, and the present safety of the roads has greatly stimulated
the internal trade of the country. A great improvement in the export
trade has followed the extension of the Baro-Kano Railway. To the north
of Minna there is a most extensive area of shea butter trees, but very
little of the produce of this area has so far been placed on the
market, partly on account of the cost of transport, and partly owing to
the reluctance of the pagans to have intercourse with markets outside
their districts. The construction of the railway has done much towards
gaining the confidence of these people, and the reduction in the cost of
transport, consequent upon the completion of the railway, will render it
possible to place profitably this sylvan produce on European markets.
Further north the railway will pass through the rich agricultural and
stock-raising Lausa provinces, which at present export live-stock, skins,
and potass by means of annual caravans. The idea that Northern Nigeria is
an especially unhealthy place for European residents is scarcely borne
out by the total death-rate of roughly twenty per thousand, calculated on
the average resident European population; but the proportion of officers
invalided home is still large, though it is much smaller than it was a
few years ago, when less satisfactory sanitary conditions prevailed at
the stations.
Although the addition of the Nigerian Protectorates to the Empire is
primarily due to the prescience and enterprise of the Niger Company,
that corporation has no monopoly of trade within their boundaries nor
any special advantage over other traders. It takes its chances against
rival firms in the many spots in which it comes into competition with
them. At Gana Gana, for instance, the company’s first station beyond
Burutu, the German firm of Bey & Zimmer has a depôt. John Holt & Co., E.
H. Stern & Co., J. T. Palmer & Co., Pagenstecher, and the British Cotton
Growing Association are all represented in Nigeria, and the firm of G.
W. Christian & Co. has established important trading stations at most of
the principal towns on the river. As recently as 1904 Messrs. Christian
started operations in Nigeria at a small place named Proropro on the
left bank of the Niger; to-day they have branches at Forcados, Burutu,
Onitsha, Illah, Illushi, Idah, and Lokoja, and at all these centres they
not only conduct a large cash and barter trade, but undertake equipments
and accept commissions, and cater in every way for the requirements of
both Europeans and natives. The extraordinarily rapid rise and progress
of this firm is almost entirely due to the exceptional qualifications for
the trade possessed by the principal, Mr. George William Christian, who
was born in Liverpool in 1872, and who, from the early age of fifteen
has been associated with West Africa, and in twenty-five years has
acquired a thorough experience and first-hand knowledge of the British
and native needs of the Protectorates.
PARTICULARS OF COMPANIES WORKING TIN PROPERTIES IN NORTHERN NIGERIA
CHAMPION GOLD REEFS OF WEST AFRICA, LTD.
_Capital._—£50,000, in 200,000 shares of 5s. each; all are
issued and fully paid.
_Directors._—S. R. Bastard (Chairman), F. N. Best, Sir Horace
C. Regnart, John Waddington.
_Secretary._—Newman Ogle.
_Offices._—Friars House, New Broad Street, E.C.
To this company belongs the credit of being one of the first to
appreciate the almost unlimited opportunities the tin fields of
Northern Nigeria offer for the employment of British capital. It is not
surprising, therefore, that it has to-day, not merely one finger, but
the whole of its digits in the Nigerian “pie,” from which it has already
pulled out a “plum” in the shape of a dividend of 100 per cent. paid
in March last. It is not always the pioneer in a new mining field who
strikes the richest areas, but under the guidance of its highly capable
engineers, Champion Gold Reefs of West Africa obtained exclusive rights
over some properties and interests in options over others which promise a
magnificent harvest in years to come.
It was in September 1909, that the company decided to abandon gold mining
in Ashanti and devote attention to tin mining in Northern Nigeria. What
were described as “very extensive alluvial tin areas” were acquired
on September 20. In a circular to the shareholders, dated October 6,
it was stated that the work carried on by the Niger Company, and the
investigations of mining engineers in the district had “proved the
existence of very rich alluvial ground, and already upwards of 1,000
tons of black tin, won by means of calabashes and sluice boxes, had been
shipped.” It was further stated that on one of the properties, over
which the company had exclusive rights, there was a waterfall of 480
feet, which would secure cheap and ample power; that the properties were
situated some 3,500 feet above sea-level, and the climate was good; that
the district was thickly populated, and the natives willing and anxious
to work.