Tin smelting in the Nok region, Nigeria

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Periodical article

Title:	Tin smelting in the Nok region, Nigeria
Author:	Bitiyong, Yashim Isa
Year:	1999
Periodical:	West African Journal of Archaeology
Volume:	29
Issue:	1-2
Pages:	47-52
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Nigeria Great Britain
Subjects:	colonialism tin mining indigenous technology
Abstract:	By 1910 many individuals and companies involved in tin mining were operating on the Jos plateau and the region south and southwest of the plateau in the Middle Belt of Nigeria. Their presence caused drastic changes in the composition of the operators and in the nature and scale of tin mining in the region. Only a few years previously, tin mining operations had been conducted by natives of the area and their immigrant neighbours, but the British outlawed and stopped independent Nigerian tin mining and smelting which used indigenous methods, because they were considered harmful to European interests. Based on historical records, this paper presents a brief description of indigenous Nigerian tin smelting processes and techniques. A note on mining methods in Nigeria, which were practised probably from c. 925 BC onward, is followed by a description of an ongoing tin smelting exercise in 1910 and a note on the tin distribution network. Bibliogr.