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Open Access e-Journal Earth Science India- www.earthscienceindia.info Popular Issue, VIII (I), January, 2015, p. 1 -13

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Pewter industry and tin mining in Malaysia; and the Batu Caves of Kuala Lumpur

Arun Kumar

Hundreds of limestone caves and karst towers occur in Malaysia…….. Pewter has been used by human beings since the Bronze Ageand was used by ancient Egyptians and Romans. One of the earliest pieces of pewter was found at an Egyptian tomb from 1450 BC……….. Tin occurs primarily as alluvial deposits along the western foothills of the Malay Peninsula. This region stretches along a 400 km long and 60 km wide land of the west coast of the Peninsula.

In April 2011 on my way to attend the 34th International Symposium for Remote Sensing of the Environment (ISRSE) in Sydney, Australia, I spent a few days in the beautiful Malaysian capital city Kuala Lumpur. I present in this article a few interesting and significant geological features of Malaysia that includetin mining, pewter industry and the Hindu temples of the Batu Caves of Kuala Lumpur.

Kuala Lumpur is situated in the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia (Figure 1). It is a

multicultural (Figure 2) and multiethnic (Figure3) modern city (Figure 4) that covers an area of 243 km2 and in 2010 its population was estimated to be around 1.6 million. This city is also affectionately referred to as K L.

Figure-1: Google map of Southeast Asia showing Malay Peninsula and the locations of Kuala Lumpur and Batu Caves.


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Figure 2: A billboard in Kuala Lumpur indicating its multicultural heritage (Photo: The author,

April, 2011).

Figure-3: A wall poster in the pewter factory, Royal Selanger, Kuala Lumpur indicating the multiethnic heritage of Malaysia. (Photo: The author, April, 2011)


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Figure-4: A dirty pond in the middle of Kuala Lumpur; otherwise a modern, clean and green city (Photo: The author, April, 2011)

Malaysia comprises of thirteen large states and three smaller federal territories and covers

an area of about 329,847 km2. The country is divided into Malaysian Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia separated by the South China Sea. Malaysia shares land borders with Brunei, Thailand, and Indonesia and sea borders with Singapore, Vietnam and Philippines.

According to Wikipedia (website 1), “Traders and settlers from India and China arrived

as early as the 1st century AD, establishing trading ports and coastal towns in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Their presence resulted in strong Indian and Chinese influence on the local cultures, and the people of the Malay Peninsula adopted the religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. Sanskrit inscriptions appear as early as the 4th or 5th century.” In 2010 the Malaysian population constituted of 60.3% Malays, 22.9% Chinese, and 7.1% Indians (website 2).

Pewter Industry

According to the United States Geological Survey (website 3), “Pewter can be a variety

of alloys. Modern pewter is 93% tin, 6% antimony, and 1% copper. Other metals that have been used in pewter include lead, bismuth, and zinc.” Pewter is also described as amalleablemetalalloywith 85 - 99% tin, with the remaining proportions of copper, antimony, bismuth and less commonlylead and silver (Figure 5). Copper and antimony are used as


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hardeners. It has a low melting point, around 170 - 230 °C, depending on the mixture of metals (website 4).

Figure-5: A wall poster at the Royal Selanger headquarters in Kuala Lumpur explaining what is pewter. The author is standing with a pewter cup. (Photo: A fellow tourist, April, 2011)

Pewter has been used by human beings since the Bronze Ageand was used by ancient

Egyptians and Romans. One of the earliest pieces of pewter was found at an Egyptian tomb from 1450 BC. Later during the Middle Ages its use became widespread in Europe. Traditionally, pewter has been used for tableware in Europe and its items are often found in churches. Developments in pottery and glass-making during the 18th and 19th centuries led to the fall in pewter use and mass production of pottery, porcelain and glass products has gradually replaced pewter in routine uses. Pewters containing lead are no longer used for making cups, plates or jewelry because of health concerns and modern pewters are completely free of lead, although few containing lead are produced for other purposes (website 4).


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Pewter artifacts continue to be producedmainly as decorative or specialty items. These

days pewter is used in decorative objects, mainly collectible statuettes and figurines, game figures, aircraft and other models, (replica) coins, pendants, plated jewelry, etc. Pewter produced in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand contains a higher percentage of tin, usually 97.5% tin, 1% copper and 1.5% antimony making it slightly softer (website 4).

A Malaysian company named the Royal Selangor is a pewter manufacturer and retailer; it

is the largest company of its type in the world (Figure 6; website 5). They make a wide variety of handcrafted pewter objects for ceremonial use for homes and temples, beer mugs, decorative items and tea and water cups, etc. (Figures 7 and 8). The world's largest pewter beer mug was made by them in 1985 to commemorate their centenary. It has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records (Figure 8). It is 1.987 m tall, weighs 1,557 kg and has a capacity of 2,796 liters. This is on display at the Royal Selangor headquarters in Kuala Lumpur and has travelled around the world to places such as Canada, Australia, Singapore and China.

Figure-6: A wall poster at the Royal Selanger headquarters in Kuala Lumpur showing early

mining activities of the company. (Photo: the author, April, 2011).


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Figure-7: A wall poster at the Royal Selanger headquarters in Kuala Lumpur showing decorative items produced by the company. (Photo: the author, April, 2011)

Figure-8: The giant beer mug outside the Royal Selanger headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. (Photo:

A fellow tourist, April, 2011)


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Tin Mining in Malaysia

Tin mining in Malaysia goes back to over 2,000 years and it has been the major pillar of the Malaysian economy for a long time. Tin occurs primarily as alluvial deposits along the western foothills of the Malay Peninsula. This region stretches along a 400 km long and 60 km wide land of the west coast of the Peninsula. Primarily tin mining was done by gravel pump and dredging operation that accounted for around 80 % of the total output. But during the 1980s there was a significant fall in gravel pump producers because it became uneconomical to produce tin in small mining units due to the lower price of tin in the world markets (websites 6, 7).

The history of tin mining and the human history of Malaysia, especially of the city of Kuala Lumpur, are intricately interlinked. Tin mining is one of the oldest industries in Malaya which began in the 1820s after the arrival of Chinese immigrants. By 1872 there were about 40,000 Chinese miners in Malaysia. In1862 Kuala Lumpur was a village and in Malay it meant “muddy estuary”. In1880 Kuala Lumpur became a town when the British developed the first city plan and rich miners built colonial houses. This city was almost in the middle of a rich tin-mining area. By 1883 Malaysia had become the largest tin producer in the world and by the end of the 19thcentury it was supplying about 55% of the world's tin (website 7).

Tin Ores

Tin is an element in Group 14 (number 50) of the periodic table and has metallic properties. Tin or Sn (Latin: Stannum) has been known since ancient times yet could only be obtained by extraction from its ore. Taylor (1979) is a major publication on the geology of tin deposits. It is an uncommon element in the earth’s crust and forms just 2 parts per million (ppm). About 80% of the world’s production of tin is produced from placer, particularly alluvial, deposits (website 8).

Cassiterite containing up to 78.8 % Sn is the most valuable tin ore. It is found as primary

ore deposits within veins and quartz lodes with granite or at the margins of granite bodies in contact with sedimentary rocks. Cassiterite is resistant to both chemical and physical weathering, thus forms placer deposits because it is concentrated by the action of water and other agents (websites 8, 9).

Stannite is a tin-copper-iron sulphide mineral but is not sought after as an ore mineral due

to extract difficulties. It has 27.5 % Sn; it also contains good industrial concentrations of Sn but is not very widely used because of the numerous difficulties involved in ore dressing and Sn extraction. Nordenskioldine, with 43.5 percent Sn, is a calcium-tin borate of secondary commercial importance. Tin deposits can be native or placer. The high commercial value of tin makes it profitable to develop native deposits that contain as little as 0.1 percent Sn and placer deposits that contain 0.01 percent Sn. Approximately 70 % of the world’s tin supply is located in placer depositsfrom which up to 75 % of all commercial tin is extracted. In 1973 the overall tin supply in developing and industrial countries was estimated at 8.3 million tons. The primary


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reserves of tin ore are located in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailandand Burma in Southeast Asia and in Bolivia, Brazil, Australia, Nigeriaand Great Britain (websites 8, 9). China, Indonesia and Peru are currently the world’s largest producers of tin.

Figure-9: The author standing before the giant statue of Lord Murugan (Vishnu) at the base of

the steps leading to the Batu Caves. (Photo: A fellow tourist, April, 2011)

Batu Caves and the Hindu Temple

Batu Caves (Batu Malai in Tamil) are a series of generally interconnected caverns in a large limestone hill overlooking Kuala Lumpur (Figures 9-15). These caverns are of variable size; the largest one known asthe Cathedral Cave is almost 100 m tall. Some of the caverns of the Batu Caves open at the top permitting natural lightto enter in the caves (sink holes). Most caverns are completely dark. There are several tunnels, underground cavernsand small waterfalls that continue to expand these caves.


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Hundreds of limestone caves and karst towers occur in Malaysia. An introductory register of the caves of Peninsular Malaysia was published by Price (2001). The Batu Caves hill is anUpper Silurian Limestone outcrop rising more than 250 m above the Klang Valley of Selangor.It is located 11 km north of downtown Kuala Lumpur. The hill stands as a solitary karst tower and gets its name from the Sungai Batu River that flows nearby.

These caves have both stalactites and stalagmites (speleothems). Stalactites are the

formations that hang from the ceilings of the caveswhile stalagmites look like emerging towers from the ground. Batu Caves include cave pearls, flowstone, stone fountains and cave straw - all formations caused by water's action on limestone. There are also several hundred animal and bird species found in Batu Caves including several species found nowhere else in the world (website 10). Since 1891 the hill has been the site of an important Hindu temple complex (Figures 9, 10: Durai 1939, Soepadmo and Ho 1971). The site has been the subject of extensive biological research (McClure et al. 1967); however, most investigations have focused on the Dark Caves (Price 2002). Very little has been published on the other caves. Although there are a few surveys mapping the Batu Caves the information available is incomplete and unreliable. Price (2001) provides an introduction to the caves of Peninsular Malaysia and provides a description about the Batu Caves. Tan (2006) discusses the engineering and environmental geology of Kuala Lumpur that provides some basic geological information on the Batu Caves.

Figure-10: Gateway decorated by Hindu deities at the base of the steps leading to the Batu Caves. (Photo: The author, April, 2011)


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Figure 11: Inside the Batu Caves showing speleothems. (Photo: The author, April, 2011)

Figure 12: Outside of the Batu Caves showing speleothems. (Photo: The author, April, 2011)


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Figure 13: The Batu Caves opening at the top and showing an almost vertical wall. Natural light penetrates inside the caves. (Photo: The author, April, 2011)

Figure 14: A round opening at the topof the Batu Caves. (Photo: The author, April, 2011)


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Figure 15: Inside the Batu Caves showing stalactites and stalagmites. (Photo: The author, April, 2011)

Acknowledgements:I sincerely thank my son Anshuman Kumar for linguistic improvements to this article. References; Durai, R. S. S., 1939. Port Weld to Kuantan (a study of Malayan place-names). Kuala Lumpur. Malayan Printers. McClure, E.H., B.L. Lim and S.E. Winn. 1967. Fauna of Dark Cave, Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur. Price, L. 2001. Caves and Karst of Peninsular Malaysia: A Register. Kuala Lumpur: Gua Publications. Price, L. 2002. Dark Cave Surveys. Malaysian Naturalist 55(4): 38-39. Soepadmo, E. and Ho Thian Hua. 1971. A Guide to Batu Caves. Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Nature Society. Tan, B. K. 2006. Urban geology of Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh, Malaysia. IAEG2006 Paper number 24, pp. 1-7. Taylor, R. G. 1979. Geology of tin deposits. Elsevier, 543 p. Web references Website 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia Website 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Malaysia


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Website 3: http://gallery.usgs.gov/audios/?a=88#.VJiYQpCcA Website 4: http://www.ask.com/wiki/Pewter?lang=en Website 5: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Selangor Website 6: http://www.earthsci.org/mineral/mindep/depfile/tin.htm#anchor210973 Website 7: http://mmadventure.com/kuala-lumpur-attractions/history-of-tin-mining-in-malaysia.htm Website 8: http://www.geologyforinvestors.com/tin/ Website 9: http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Tin+Ores Website 10: http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC1NAJH_batu-caves-kl-earthcache?guid=13cd927c-5ea7-41f0-91ad-df42f9c8aebf

About the Author

Dr. Arun Kumar is an Adjunct Professor, Department of Earth Science, Carleton University Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre. 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada Email: [email protected]