Recalling Days Of Ore.

A Phuket museum will celebrate the island’s rich tin mining history

Phuket was once famous as one of the country’s major tin producers and the memories of days gone by when a thriving tin mining industry brought economic prosperity to the southern province remain vivid.  A local tin mining museum in Kathu district recently had its soft opening. It will relive the success story of the island province’s industrial past and promote local history. Scenes of vibrant tin mines are now a thing of the past, but every old tin mine has its own story to tell and is worth preserving for educational purposes and posterity. According to old records, tin mining in Phuket began around 1526 during the reign of King Eka Tossarot who ruled the Ayutthaya kingdom. Tin trading in Phuket began to thrive around 1686 during the reign of King Narai the Great of the Ayutthaya kingdom. French merchants then arrived in the province and set up companies with a monopoly in the tin trade. The tin mining industry in Phuket created economic prosperity for local communities for a long time before natural supplies of ore ran out. In the past, tin mining was very labour-intensive before it evolved into a large-scale industry using heavy machinery. Edward Thomas Miles, an Australian, brought the first tin dredge to Phuket in 1909. He was granted the Tongkah Harbour Concession Agreement to mine tin deposits on Phuket Island. Tin helped boost the local economy in Phuket.
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