Coal.
It is common to see coal mentioned amongst the mineral resources of the Philippines, but so far as I have been able to learn, no true coal has been found there, nor in any of the adjacent islands. There are beds of lignite of varying quality, and when enthusiastic finders are told of the poor quality of their samples, they reply at once, “It will be better at depth.”
The Philippine formations seem to greatly resemble those of Borneo, and there it was found that the lignite got poorer at depth, so that mines were abandoned from this cause alone.
The Philippine beds of lignite have been violently upheaved by the cataclysms of former ages, and are often turned up vertically, as at the mines of Sugud in Albay. I was consulted about these mines after a considerable sum had been thrown away. The Spanish engineer employed commenced by building himself a commodious house; he then laid a tramway from the port to where the mine was to be, and bought a winding engine. The available capital was expended, and nothing more was done.
The position of the seams at Sugud very much resembles the occurrence of the seams at the Pengaron mine in Borneo, which stopped work 18th October, 1884, after a precarious existence of thirty-six years, on account of the poor quality of the coal and the relatively high cost of extraction. This is on the authority of Dr. Theodor Posewitz in ‘Borneo: its Geology and Mineral Resources,’ 1892, and what follows so exactly applies to all the so-called coal in the Philippines, that I shall quote the paragraph:—
P. 480.—“A number of analyses were carried out, and practical tests were applied on board various ships. The result was always ore or less favourable, yet nobody would have the coal.”
The coal mine in the British Colony of Labuan was given up after several years’ working.
People blame the Spanish Government, the priests, the natives, the roads, but the reason of failure in the Philippines is very simple. “Nobody would have the coal,” that is to say on board ship. The lignite could be used on land, but there is little demand for it, except for navigation. Some of it is liable to spontaneous combustion in the bunkers, some is so charged with sulphur as to be bad for the furnaces, or else it will not keep steam. I doubt if there is any good coal between Japan and Australia, and as long as coal from there can be delivered at present prices in Manila, I don’t advise anybody to put money into Philippine coal unless they know more about it than I do.
It has often been said that the Philippines have never been explored. This is, however, only true of certain regions, and as regards beds of the so-called coal you will find them marked on the maps all over the principal islands.
If you proceed to the village nearest the spot, you will find, very probably, that the seam has been known for a century, and that pits or adits have been made and a lot of money spent to no purpose. Nobody ever made any money out of Philippine lignite that I know of, but I don’t prophesy whether anybody ever will.
I append an analysis of some so-called coal that was brought me from Masbate in 1889.