ENG-1960 — Page 138

PRIMARY PRODUCTION

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Co-operative Societies, two Better Living Societies and twenty three Building Societies. At present there are sixteen different types of society. A table showing the number of societies in being at 31st December 1960, with details of their membership, share capital, deposits and reserve funds will be found in Appendix V.

MINING

Iron ore, tungsten, and graphite are mined underground, and kaolin, feldspar, and quartz by opencast methods. Iron and kaolin are exported to Japan, wolframite to the United States, and graphite to the United Kingdom, United States, Japan, and other countries. Local ceramic and enamelware-factories consume all the quartz and the rubber factories about a fifth of the kaolin that is mined.

At the end of 1960, there were two mining leases, twenty one mining licences, and six prospecting licences valid for different mainland areas and in islands of the New Territories. These were mainly controlled by individuals or small mining companies.

In 1960 the production from the iron mine at Ma On Shan came chiefly from underground. The ore was treated in a dressing plant-with a daily capacity of 700 tons of crude ore. From this plant, near the waterfront, concentrates were transported by barge to ocean-going ships anchored off-shore. A second dressing plant was installed early in the year to treat low-grade crude ore which had been dumped in past years as uneconomic. This ore was screened, hand-picked, and subjected to dry magnetic separation before being passed to the main dressing plant.

Although the market price of wolfram has improved and re- mained steady during the year, it is still so low as to discourage interest in the mineral, except at a mine at Needle Hill. Prospect- ing continued for iron ore and graphite but no discoveries of economic importance were made.

The Mines Department is under the control of the Commissioner of Mines, who is also the Commissioner of Labour. The everyday direction of the department is by a Superintendent of Mines, helped by an Assistant Mining Engineer.

The ownership and control of all minerals is invested in the Crown under the Mining Ordinance, 1954. This ordinance provides