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TABLE (16).

DEATHS.

SUMMARY OF DEATHS caused by ACCIDENTS in the MIDLAND DISTRICT during the Years

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NOTE-The figures for the years 1873 to 1889 will be found in the Annual Report for the year 1900, page 54.

TABLE (17).

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PERSONS EMPLOYED and MINERAL WROUGHT in the MIDLAND DISTRICT, comprising the COUNTIES of Derby, Leicester, Northampton, Nottingham, and Warwick during the Years 1890 to 1906.

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NOTE.-The figures for the years 1873 to 1889 will be found in the Annual Report for the year 1900.

54,044 8,239
52,359 7,072

REPORT UNDER THE METALLIFEROUS MINES

REGULATION ACTS.

Persons Employed.-There is an increase of 120 in the number of persons employed, viz:-39 below-ground and 81 above-ground. This is accounted for by the increased activity in the mining operations for lead ore and fluor spar in Derbyshire, and a larger number of persons employed in the gypsum mines of Nottinghamshire, although in the latter case the production of mineral is less as compared with the previous year.

Mineral Output.-There is a considerable decrease in the quantity of mineral raised, principally due to the three minerals gypsum, fluor spar and limestone. The output of lead ore is an increase of 362 tons as compared with the previous year. The working of lead ore is largely due to one mine, and although there are fourteen other mines which have raised ore during the year, yet not one has exceeded an output of 12 tons.

SECTION I.

PERSONS EMPLOYED.

The total number of persons returned as being employed in and about the metalliferousmines during the year was 984, or 120 more than in the previous year.

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SECTION II.

OUTPUT OF MINERAL.

The quantity of mineral raised during the year is 23,260 tons less than the quantity raised in the previous year.

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26,984 620 79,086

4 34,347 160 93,202

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SECTION III.

ACCIDENTS.

Fatal.

No fatal accident has occurred in the Metalliferous mines of the district during the

Non-Fatal.

Nine non-fatal accidents have been reported during the year.

Accident No. 2.-The man was engaged in dressing chert stone when he was struck in the eye by a splinter of chert. The injury appeared to be of a trivial nature at the time, but a cataract formed on the eye and the man had to enter the hospital for its

treatment.

Acculent No. 4.-A large shed is provided at the mine for drying and changing of the miners' clothes. On the Saturday afternoons the fire is banked up and left until Monday morning. Early on the Monday morning, the date of the accident, one of the miners began to poke up the encrusted coal on the fire, when the pent up gas exploded and burned the man on the face and arms.

The other accidents reported are of a trivial nature and I am pleased to report that the year has been free from any serious accident in the metalliferous mines of the

TABLE (20).

SUMMARY OF FATAL AND NON-FATAL ACCIDENTS, CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO PLACE

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No prosecutions under the Metalliferous Mines Act have been taken during the

SECTION V.
GENERAL REMARKS.

year.

During the year there has been considerable discussion, and enthusiastic accounts. have appeared in the local newspapers, regarding the proposed re-opening of numerous lead mines in the Peak of Derbyshire, but as far as actual lead mining is concerned, I do not yet find any solid ground for anticipating a return to the former extent of prosperity of the lead mining industry in this part of my district, and I think that the posting up of notices, and the taking over of old mines may be principally attributed to other causes connected with mining. The mining for lead in the High and Low Peaks of Derbyshire is governed by antiquated customs, and curious enactments peculiar to the district. By the old customs, which have been confirmed to the miners by Act of Parliament, any person may mine for lead in any man's land, other than churchyards and orchards. He requires to ask no man's permission, he may commence to sink a shaft, and when he obtains ore, the barmaster and his jury are called in to "free the mine." The miner then obtains a right of road to carry away the ore obtained from the mine, but the mineral must not be removed until it has been measured by the barmaster. The miner is, however, restricted in his rights and privileges to lead ore only, and although small dues are to be paid, viz. :-" tithe, lot, and cope," no payment is made to the landowner or tenant of the surface, but they are not left without a compensating advantage, for the rights of the miner do not extend to any other minerals that may be brought to the surface during the mining operations, and before he can remove or sell mineral, other than lead ore, he must come to terms with the landowner as to royalty to be paid, or way leave for taking the same across the land. Thus the easy terms have encouraged miners from time immemorial to search for lead ore, and both old shafts and vein outcrops are

numerous throughout the Peak of Derbyshire. There are no known abandoned mines, but what are supposed to have been exhausted of their payable ore, and the old miner has generally worked out the vein to either a non-paying yield or down to water level, and any further large operations must be carried on with adequate machinery for dealing with water or easy extraction of ore.

It will be recognised that ore cannot be obtained without raising a considerable quantity of other minerals such as spar, either calc-spar or fluor-spar, and barytes, which may form the matrix enclosing the ore vein. There was no commercial value in the spoil heaps of fluor-spar until recently, when it was found that the refuse heaps surrounding a number of old shafts contained a large percentage of fluor-spar, and that such spar could be used as a flux for certain smelting operations, so that it now commands a payable commercial value. The success attending the enterprise of one firm has not escaped the notice of old and young miners in the district, who have, as a consequence, become anxious to resume mining operations; and the following conditions at the present time are encouraging a resumption of work at the mines; (1) Rise in the price of lead; (2) The value of spoil refuse formerly considered worthless; and (3) The ease by which a mine can be obtained. (1.) The price of lead has materially advanced during the year, and now stands at a figure which is sufficient to induce miners to re-open mines which had been closed as being unprofitable.

(2.) The recently discovered value of fluor-spar refuse which has lain for many years as utterly worthless, and, whereas lead ore was the only mineral sold formerly, there will now be found at some mines a commercial value for the mineral got with the ore.

(3.) The facilities for obtaining an old mine. It is enacted by the Mining Customs Act that if a mine is not worked continuously, the barmaster may, after carrying out certain formalities, give it to any applicant after the lapse of a certain time, and after posting of a notice at the mine and the payment of a small fee by the new applicant. If the owner of a mine that is not worked, after being served with a notice, does not work the mine within three weeks of the date of the notice, the barmaster may give it to the person who applied for the same, but this only applies to the mine and not to the hillocks of spar, for the landowner has to be consulted before the mineral can be removed from the land.

The long neglected and abandoned refuse heaps are now receiving some attention, and what has long been considered a worthless deposit on the owner's land is likely to become a source of revenue, and, to a large extent, assist in the removal of such unsightly heaps.

These are the causes of the revived interest in the lead mines of Derbyshire. The recent rise in the price of lead might of itself be sufficient to encourage miners to resume underground operations, but if they select a mine where there is a vein of saleable spar, the lead and spar may prove sufficiently remunerative to make it a payable occupation, and the easy and inexpensive way a mine can be secured offers many inducements to men who have a knowledge of mining.

The above explains briefly the glowing accounts which have recently appeared in the local press with respect to the revival of the lead mining industry or the "nicking" and transfer of a mine or mines. The miner who is a native of the Peak is not ignorant of his privileges under the Mining Customs Act should he be desirous of doing a little mining, but he also knows that his rights and privileges are equally available for his neighbour or the public generally, for if he opens a mine and does not continuously work it he may lose possession, and have to forfeit it to any person who can exercise the same procedure as he did when he first obtained it. Thus a miner may give notice and may acquire a number of mines, but he must work them, or he stands a chance of losing the same. It is probable that in some cases the new applicant is simply renewing an old claim, and has no intention of energetically working the mine. He is probably following some other employment, but can find time to do sufficient work in the mine to safeguard his claim, and so gets a re-entry of his name in the barmaster's book as the owner of the mine. There are, however, a number of cases where the claim has been made by persons whose sole object is the development of the mine, and whose hope rests upon there being a cross joint interstructure of lead, or spar to pay for cutting out a "scrin" or vein.

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