Nigeria and its tin fields

by Albert Frederick Calvert

CLIMATE AND WATER

Mr. Huddart, until recently Director of Mines, who has declared that the climate of Northern Nigeria is better than that of Rhodesia, and that the country is without a single tsetse belt, says:

“The nights are quite cold, and any man who lives well ought to have perfect health. I do not reckon it in the least like any other part of West Africa; it is more like Eastern Soudan, and it is known as the Western Soudan. With regard to water, which, as you know, is a very important question, it is quite erroneous to imagine that there is very little water here. In Northern Queensland and South-Eastern and Western Australia there is much less water than here; in fact there is no comparison between them. Mr. Lush and I—and I had the pleasure of travelling with him—were never at any trouble in getting water, we never had even to carry water, and those who have travelled know what that means.”

In Nigeria they have only two well-defined seasons, the wet and the dry season. The wet season lasts from April till the end of October, and during that time it is very difficult to do any prospecting work, although, of course, mining can be carried on in certain districts. It is during the dry season, from the end of October to April, that most of the work can be accomplished, especially from a prospector’s point of view.

LIVING AND PROVISIONS

Mr. Lush, writing on the subject of the cost of living and provisions, says “living is cheap, there being plenty of beef, mutton, fowls, milk, eggs, &c. Any kind of vegetable grows well, especially English varieties; in fact very few mining fields that I have visited can be compared to Northern Nigeria in respect of the various sorts of wholesome fresh food that can be obtained. In fact all one requires is flour and a few groceries. The country will provide the rest.”

LICENCES AND LEASES

The new mining regulations, incorporated in the “Minerals Proclamation, 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.