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National Geographic : 1947 Mar
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In Manchuria Now I 4iU11 (t Coal Diggers Have Hewn a Mighty Stair-stepped Gash in the Earth at Fushun The huge open-cut mine is more than four miles long and nearly a mile wide. The coal seam is some 400 feet thick at one end and about one-third as deep at the other. Chinese now carry on limited operations and mine about 3,000 tons a day. Overlying the coal is shale, from which the Japanese extracted oil. Beyond the rim rear the oil plants and large electrical power station. "Japanese records show that 1940 was their peak production year," explained the director. "In that year they produced 7,270,000 metric tons of coal from the open cut and the near-by shaft mine. From that time until the end of the war the output gradually declined, but not from lack of coal. The Japanese had neither equipment nor men enough to keep the over burden sufficiently cut back from the coal face. We'll need new equipment to clear overburden before we can do major mining." We rode down to the bottom to watch the Chinese miners at work. At the time, their output was only about 3,000 tons a day. The vein, which tilts downward at an angle of 25° to 30°, has been worked to a depth of 541 feet, but that is less than half the distance it has been explored. Overlying the Fushun mine is a thick layer of shale, from which the Japanese got Diesel oil, lubricating oils, and gasoline. They had built two plants which had a combined ca pacity of 210 tons of crude oil a day. When we dropped in to visit the plants, Chinese workmen were gathered around tables in the yard and were celebrating on toasts of fiery baigar. Just that day they had suc ceeded in restoring operation in a part of the 397
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