Mining has been practiced in Taiwan for hundreds of years. Sulfur was an early important resource collected on the island.[1] Coal mining expanded in the 19th century to keep up with demand from increased foreign trade.Heavy industry was further expanded under Japanese rule, but air raids towards the end of World War II decimated mining infrastructure, falling below 19th century production levels. Copper mining expanded in the mid-20th century, but ended in the 1980s following a global collapse in the price of copper.
Today, Taiwan produces cement, marble, gold, oil and natural gas. Mining activities in Taiwan are regulated by theBureau of Mines of theMinistry of Economic Affairs.
Pre-colonization the indigenous people of Taiwan tradedsulfur from deposits around volcanic vents to Chinese merchants visiting from the continent.[2]
Chinese mining andmetallurgy followed theHoklo,Hakka, andHan to Taiwan Island, particularly after the lateMing (16th & 17th centuries). Work was expanded under theQing, but was limited by the occupation of the highlands by hostilenative peoples.
Under the consent of the Fujian officials,Yu Yonghe travelled to Taiwan following the explosion of theFuzhou gunpowder stores in 1696 to mine sulfur. Yu's voyage began at the coast toXiamen, crossing theTaiwan Strait and coming to a halt inPenghu before arriving inTainan. Yu then journeyed northward toTamsui andBeitou where he bought amorphous sulfur from local Aborigines for the making of pure sulfur. The expedition lasted ten months. This trip became the basis of one of the most important works about early Qing-era Taiwan, Small Sea Travel Diaries (裨海紀遊).[3]
As late as 1880, the only resources known to exist in economical quantities and locations werecoal,sulphur, andpetroleum,[4] all in thevolcanic northeastern third of the island. Mining was progressively developed by both the government and private sectors.[5]
After "Taiwan" (i.e.Tainan) and "Taashwi" (i.e.Tamsui) wereopened to foreign commerce by the 1858Treaties of Tianjin,[6][7] foreign ships required those ports to maintain supplies of coal. This was provided from fields nearKeelung andTamsui, whose highlybituminous coal was fast-burning but nonetheless used by thewarships of theFuzhou Arsenal.[4] The high demand led to rampant smuggling and theft, to the point where the Qing government temporarily banned the trade to rein in its ill effects.[4] The Qing introduced moderncoal mining to Taiwan in 1877, when they retained the British engineer Tyzack to open a 91 m (300 ft) shaft with modern machinery.[4]
Taiwan's heavy industry was developed byJapan both before and during theSecond World War, butUS bombing—particularly after theTaiwan Air Battle in October 1944 gave the Americansair supremacy—devastated mining production. Although overall industry had declined only 33% from 1937 levels by the war's end, coal production had fallen from 200,000 metric tons (197,000 long tons; 220,000 short tons) to 15,000 metric tons (14,800 long tons; 16,500 short tons),[8] lower than the amount produced in the mid-1870s.[4]
Women were significant participants in the mining industry during the Japanese colonial period. The Empire of Japan was not a party to theUnderground Work (Women) Convention, 1935. The Republic of China which took over in 1945 was a party to the convention but women continued to work in Taiwanese mines until 1963 whenSoong Mei-ling intervened following an accident which killed multiple married couples.[9][10]
Coal mining largely ended by the 1990s due to a combination of repeated serious accidents and the low price of imported coal.[9][11]
As of 2013, mineral products accounted for 10% of Taiwan export value. The sector also employs 2,758 workforce.[12]
Taiwan consumed about 180,000 tonnes ofaluminium alloy in 2013, in which it went to the electronics sector (41%), packing (26%), construction (9%), machinery (8%) and others (16%). The CS Aluminium Corp., subsidiary ofChina Steel Corporation, produced 167,000 tonnes of aluminium in 2010.[12]
Around 80% of Taiwan'scement are mined and produced in Eastern Taiwan. In 2013, the output capacity was 26 million tonnes per year. In that year, Taiwan produced 16Mt of cement and consumed 12 Mt. Cement is exported toGhana,Malaysia,Indonesia,Mauritius andAustralia.[12] Cement mining in Taiwan is mostly done byTaiwan Cement orAsia Cement Corporation in which its plant inHualien County contributes to nearly 29% of Taiwan's cement production.[13]
Limestone mining was done inZuoying District,Kaohsiung in an area what used to be a part ofMount Banping. In 1997, the mining activities ceased to operate. The abandoned site has now been turned into theBanping Lake Wetland Park for tourism by theKaohsiung City Government.[14]
Coal is distributed mainly in northern Taiwan. All of the commercial coal deposits occurred in threeMiocene coal-bearing formations, which are the Upper, the Middle and the Lower Coal Measures. The Middle Coal Measures was the most important with its wide distribution, great number of coal beds and extensive potential reserves. Taiwan has coal reserves estimated to be 100-180 Mt. However, coal output had been small, amounting to 6,948 metric tonnes per month from 4 pits before it ceased production effectively in 2000.[15] The abandoned coal mine inPingxi District,New Taipei has now been turned into theTaiwan Coal Mine Museum, while the one in Houtong has been turned intoHoutong Cat Village.[16] There are 394 retired coal mines in Taiwan.[9]
Copper mining, as well as gold, used to take place inJinguashi town inRuifang District,New Taipei. In 1904, arsenic-copper sulfate mineral enargite was found at the No. 3 Mine in the area when miners dug deeper, increasing the amount of copper minerals discovered. From that moment, the focus of the mining in the area shifted from gold and silver to gold, silver, and copper. After the liberation of Taiwan in 1945, the state-run Taiwan Gold and Copper Mining Bureau was established in 1946 and renamed to Taiwan Metals Mining Company in 1955. As copper production gradually increased over the years, Jinguashi mining area are good and maintained excellent operating performance. However, after 1973, the gold and copper output began to decline. In order to increase the production, the company started large-scaleopen-pit mining in 1978 and shifted its focus to mineral refining and processing. To boost their mineral processing capabilities, the company took out bank loans in 1981 to build the Lile Copper Refinery in the area located at the Golden Waterfall today. Because of a collapse in the world copper price few years later, the company was unable to repay its loans and went out of business in 1987. TheTaiwan Sugar Corporation assumed ownership of the land in Jinguashi and the mining in that area came to an end.[17]
Taiwan has four gold-bearing deposits with metal content estimated at 100 tonnes. Three of the deposits are concentrated in the central mountain range, while the fourth one is atPingfeng Mountain in the north.Jinguashi Mine is one of the biggest gold deposit, located inRuifang District,New Taipei. TheGold Ecological Park was established within the area which houses theGold Museum. Quartz was often found at the same rate as gold.
Oil was firstly discovered in Taiwan inGongguan Township,Miaoli County at the Chuhuangkeng oilfield. Oil has been drilled since theQing Dynasty rule of Taiwan in 1877. It was then done by the more advanced development stage by theJapanese when they drilled around 98oil wells. The original site of the first oil well in Taiwan has now turned into theTaiwan Oil Field Exhibition Hall.[18] Oil exploration in Taiwan is controlled by theCPC Corporation.Deep drilling in Taiwan began in 1959 when the CPC drilled to a depth up to 4,063 meters which they brought out more than 110,000 m3 of natural gas and 10,000 literscondensate daily.Offshore drilling began in 1973 when their rig went down 3,661 meters under the ocean off the coast ofHsinchu County with no result.[19] In January 2013, Taiwan had 2 million barrels of provenoil reserves.[20] In 2012, Taiwan produced 22,000 barrels/day of oil. In 2007, the capacity of Taiwanoil refinery was 1,197,000 barrels/day due to its large refinery sectors.[21] In 2012, Taiwan planned to explore oil offshore ofTaiping Island inCijin District,Kaohsiung City.[22]
Taiwan produces a small amount ofnatural gas. Gas exploration in Taiwan is also controlled by theCPC Corporation. It also cooperates withChina National Offshore Oil Corporation in exploring natural gas in theTaiwan Strait.[20] In 2004, natural reserved was discovered inGuantian Township,Tainan County. In July 2010, the CPC discovered natural gas reserves inGongguan Township,Miaoli County which was estimated to have a production capacity of at least 1 billion m3.[23] In March 2013, a Taiwanese oceanic research team discoveredgas hydrate deposits in water south ofPratas Island,Cijin District,Kaohsiung City in theSouth China Sea throughreflection seismology and sub-bottom profiling data.[24]
Taiwan has some of the largest marble reserves in the world, they were first exploited during the Japanese colonial period for construction and as feedstock in the production of cement, fertilizer, carbide, paper, and sugar. Wide scale exploitation followed the opening of the Keelung-Suao railway in 1923. With the completion of the Suao-Hualien highway in 1931 the market expanded to Taipei. The industry collapsed during the last years of World War Two. The KMT government supported the redevelopment of the Taiwanese marble industry with theVocational Assistance Commission for Retired Servicemen establishing both quarries and workshops for unemployed military retirees. Finished product exports in early years relied on low local wages to be competitive in the international market, in the 1960s an Italian marble ashtray cost $30 on the American market, a comparable Taiwanese product would cost $4 in America and $2 in Taiwan. Significant investments were made in improving the quality of final products and the skills of the craftsmen.[25]Hualien County is the center of the Taiwanese marble industry and is particularly known for its production of green serpentine and white marble.[26]
In 2014 the mining sector consumed a total of 474.4 GWh of electricity.[15]
Sites for mining-related tourism in Taiwan include:
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