Nigeria and its tin fields

by Albert Frederick Calvert

They are expending £20 per mile on this work, and have completed fifty miles in two months.

This road track will come into the tin fields at Toro, twelve miles north-east of Naraguta, and twelve miles west of the company’s property at Federri. This track should be finished by the end of the year.

The country is flat and very easy for road building. There are four large rivers to cross, which would require bridges of over 100 feet in length, and numerous small creeks which could be bridged cheaply.

There is plenty of stone suitable for road ballast, available near the road. When the road track is through to the tin fields it will be possible to transport stores by carrier in seven days from railway.

It may be mentioned here that the Niger Company up to the present have had great difficulty with the prospectors and others travelling up to the tin fields, owing, in some cases, to their not having left themselves entirely in the hands of the company. The Niger Company have practically controlled the country, and have perfected arrangements by which they can supply large numbers of natives for carrying goods from the river to the tin field, but on several occasions their organisation has been interfered with by persons offering the natives three or four times their usual pay in order to get them through quickly to the fields. This, of course, as will be seen, is a dangerous policy, for if a scale is not strictly adhered to, the time will come when the natives will start attempting to dictate their own terms.

The Niger Company are not in favour of the motor route from the head of the Baro-Kano to the fields. Their opinion is that the money would be wasted on such a road, and that the mining community should be satisfied to wait until the railway is made. Their view is that the mining companies should join together and come to an arrangement with the Niger Company for carrying all the goods along their own route from Loko to the field via Keffi and Bukeru. This road, they say, could be reserved for mining business, and they would open up another route, starting from a point near Sinkai higher up the Benue River, which could be used for ordinary commercial purposes. They point out that with the rush of goods required for the mines, they have been unable to get up a sufficient and proper supply of provisions. This question, of course, requires careful consideration, as although the Niger Company wish to be considered as offering this advice in a purely disinterested manner, it should be remembered that they are asking for contracts for the whole of the transport, which would enable them to employ thousands of natives at a very low figure.

THE BAUCHI PROVINCE

Meantime the energetic prospecting and mining work that is being done in the Province of Bauchi is establishing the fact that the new tin area is of enormous extent and value both in the nature of alluvial gravels and the more permanent form of tin lodes. Mr. Lush, the well-known mining authority, who has examined a great part of the Province, estimates that these deposits are scattered over an area of no less than 2,500 square miles, and the tin produced is considered to be some of the best ever imported into Europe, and commands a price equal, if not higher, than the Straits tin. The land is situated about 3,000 to 4,000 feet above sea-level, and the late Director of Mines in Northern Nigeria states that the climate is equal to that of Rhodesia, if not even better.

“Few people have any idea,” Mr. Tomson asserts, “of the possibilities of this country. It is quite a mistake to think it is unhealthy. Naraguta is over 3,500 feet above the sea-level, and is a healthy and fertile district. Here you are hundreds of miles away from the malarial swamps and the coast. If you walk up out of the town of Naraguta on to rising ground, as far as you can see stretch out great plains of waving grass, here and there dotted with masses of the Fulani cattle. It would make a splendid wheat-growing district, for the land requires very little cultivation, and there is no bush country. Kano, which lies nearly two hundred miles to the north, is a remarkable place. Several travellers have stated that it is the largest market in the world.”