Phuket History and Tin Mining

In 1772 the British Captain, Francis Light came to establish a trading station at Baan Tharua. He became a good friend of the Thalang Governor. In 1824 King Rama III of the Chakri Dynasty ordered the building of a new city after the second Thalang battle.

During 1809 tin minerals were found at Baan Ket-ho or Kathu. (Currently Baan Thungkha in the Muang District). In 1825 Thailand signed the Berney Agreement with England which was the first trading agreement Thailand made with a western country. This directly affected trading with various countries and seaports in the Malayu Cape, namely Penang, Malacca and Singapore and resulted in the mining business expansion.

More and more Chinese people migrated to the area to work in the mining operations. At that time tin was panned from the streams using simple tools but in the Mhuang Lan or Mhuang Khra area, operators with greater financial capital used powered water hoses to break down the soil and rocks of nearby hills.

Additional to the harvesting of ore by the aforementioned methods there was other methods of mining. This was done by digging into the soil and crumbling rocks plus following the visible ore pipe.

At the Mhuang Harb mine were at least 100 workers who worked over a wide area. Mhuang Jor-Ngun was on flet ground where there was an exposed rocky mineral line. In 1861 Phuket was promoted as a leading city to be answerable directly to Bangkok and as a result of the expansion in mining; Thalang became an important town under the jurisdiction of Phuket.

In 1867 the government began collecting taxes by means of "Mhao Muang' and in 1876, Chinese workers were rioting and united united as "Ung Yee." They complained about the shortage of water needed for separating soil from ore as well as the decrease in then incomes caused by "Mhao Muang" tax system and further worsened by lowering tin prices.

In 1888 the Mhuang Cheed method was adopted from Malaya and which needed greater spaces of forestry and larger streams. In 1901 the first Mining Act was written and allowed Westerners to mine for ore. Some Westerners and mine owners from Penang then moved to Phuket, generally because of the exhausted tin deposits in Malaya. The English Chartered Bank moved in to provide financial services to foreign owned mine businesses in 1906.

In 1907 when Phraya Radsadanupradit (Khorsimby Na Ranong) was a regional dependant of Phuket. Edward Thomas Miles, an Australian captain established the Tongkah Harbor Company. It began to run Mhuang Rua Khud at Thungkha Bay. It was the first mining operation in the world to use marine vessels for dredging ore from the sea bed and later it was ingeniously adapted to be used inland too. Mhuang Rua Khud needed high capital investment and required a large open space; its success eventually attracted other companies for Mhuang Rua Khud and a new mining era was born.

In 1930 "Mhuang Chao Fah" was opened. It was the first Mhuang Soob in Thailand. It needed a large plain, equipment and a variety of vehicles. Dikes and rail tracks for the movement for mineral ore were built.

In 1947 Thai International Airways began their regular flights from Bangkok to Phuket. The time of the tourism industry had arrived. In 1963 some Phuket residents began doing their own version of sea ore dredging or Mhuang Pae-dood, by using small boats or bamboo rafts to dive from, they dug the mineral mixed with sand and soil from the sea bed and brought it to the surface be to washed and separated on the beach.

By 1981 miners who used iron rafts retrieved the mineral by using drills for piercing the ocean floor and then vacuuming the residue to the surface, hence reducing the number of laborers needed.