Between 1906 and 1976, Ma On Shan was home to a booming iron ore mine…
An expert team from HK URBEX explored the underground network last month…
Raw iron ore was once transported to a processing plant 200 metres from the coast on what was the city’s first electric tram.
Up to 5,000 iron ore miners and their families once lived in the area.
A prospecting licence for the area was first issued to the HK Iron Mining Company in 1906.
Open cast mining continued in the run-up to WWII as the licence was inherited by the New Territories Mining Company Ltd and, later, by South China Iron Smelters.
After the Japanese withdrawal from Hong Kong, operations were scaled up and underground mining began. The work was largely done manually, without machinery.
By 1964, there were 5,458m of main tunnels and shafts and 3,000m of sub-levels.
Mining was suspended in 1976 and the 400-strong workforce were laid off as the mining lease expired in March 1981.
Some geology experts and architects say the landscape, architecture and story of the lost industry would be worth preserving as a park, if nearby structures were repaired.
Urban explorers were warned this week to stay away from caves and mine shafts by Conway Leung Nom-ho, chairman of the China Hong Kong Mountaineering & Climing Union. It follows the death of a man who had ventured into Lin Ma Hang caves near the border just last week.
A short film about the mine is available on YouTube.
In the video below, Gang Yang spoke to a villager about the area’s chequered history. Many former miners and their families remain in the area…
Earlier last month, the team visited some of the new MTR tunnels.
Exploring forgotten corners of HK where nature is winning…
- Abandoned TV studios near Sai Kung.
- Abandoned Villages in HK’s ‘Wild West’ (Fan Lau).
- Central’s Abandoned Prison and Police Station.
- Fung Hang Semi-Abandoned Village.
- HK’s Abandoned ‘Ghost Island’, Yim Tin Tsai.
- Kuk Po, Part 1: Photos from HK’s Borderzone Ghost Town.
- Kuk Po, Part 2: More Shots from the Abandoned Village Outpost.
- Kuk Po: Part 3: Interview with the Only Villager.
- Kuk Po, Part 4: Plover Cove Abandoned Ghost Town Revisited.
- Luk Keng Chan Uk Semi-Abandoned Village.
- Ma Wan Abandoned Town, Part 1.
- Ma Wan Abandoned Town, Part 2.
- Shing Mun Redoubt, HK’s Secret WWII Tunnels.
- Tung Ping Chau, Part 1: Video discussing HK’s Abandoned, Wild Island Outpost.
- Tung Ping Chau, Part 2: The Abandoned Hamlets of Hong Kong’s ‘Jumanji Island’.
- Tung Ping Chau, Part 3: The Abandoned Military Base on HK’s Wild Outpost.
- Wanchai’s Abandoned Police Station.
Blog posts charting Hong Kong’s colourful past…
- 1000+ ‘Before and After’ Photos of Old & New Hong Kong.
- Cool Vintage Hong Kong Tourism Posters.
- Execution of Namoa Pirates in Kowloon, 1891.
- Hedda Morrison’s Hong Kong: Photos from 1942, Beautifully Restored.
- HK’s Boom Years: The Best of Fan Ho.
- Hong Kong’s Most Offensive Place Names.
- How Hong Kong Was Made: Iconic Buildings Under Construction.
- Mainland Refugees Fleeing Famine Rejected by HK.
- Margaret Thatcher in Hong Kong.
- More Vintage Photos of Old Hong Kong.
- Newly Unearthed Photos of 1950s Hong Kong.
- Pictures of Hong Kong in 1972.
- Rare Shots from Inside the Old Kowloon Walled City.
- Shing Mun Redoubt, HK’s Secret WWII Tunnels.
- Street Scenes in Dreamy Colour 1954-2004.
- The ‘Great Chinese Takeaway’ – the 1997 Handover.
- The 1958 Hong Kong Cha Cha Championship Winner (Bruce Lee).
- The 1967 Hong Kong Riots.
- The Bombing of Hong Kong by the U.S. 14th Air Force.
- The Day a Cargo Ship Washed up on Cheung Chau Beach.
- The Hakka Walled Village of Tsang Tai Uk, Sha Tin.
- The Iconic ‘Two Girls’ Kwong Sang Hong Cosmetics Brand
- The Luxury British Liner at the Bottom of Victoria Harbour.
- Unseen Royal Geographic Photos.
- When the MTR Was New.
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