Batu Arang
Batu Arang is a town in Gombak District, Selangor, Malaysia, that is located about from the capital Kuala Lumpur. Coal was first discovered in the region in 1908, when British authorities found large deposits of coal reserves that could be commercially viable and fuel a railway system. The town was established when the British started mining operations. In 1915, a railway system linking Batu Arang and Kuang was built to transport coal to the rest of the country. As coal output and demand increased, rail services to and from Kuala Lumpur expanded. The demand for coal from Batu Arang skyrocketed due to the First World War, which led to a reduction of coal imports. The local coal was frequently sold to the railway companies, power stations, tin mines, dredges, and end customers.
During World War II, in 1942, British authorities halted mining operations, and destroyed the power station and main sub-station as Japanese forces approached Batu Arang. When the Japanese occupied the area, they repaired the damaged equipment and hired more people to mine coal. Their mining methods, however, have left a devastating effect on the coal mine because they only focused on surface mining. When Japan surrendered at the end of World War II, Malayan Collieries resumed mining but were faced with problems such as improper mining methods by Japanese, delayed delivery for new equipment, labor strikes, fire, floods, increasing costs, rising coal prices and competition from petroleum, which is a cheaper and more attractive fuel. These problems led to the permanent closure of the coal mine on January 30, 1960.
After the closure of the mine, many miners and workers moved out of town and many buildings became ruins, the coal mine filled with water, land faced soil erosion, and the railway line from Kuang was dismantled, effectively ended railway service in Batu Arang. Despite this, some residents remained in the town and shops, facilities, and amenities continue to operate. On October 16, 2011, the town celebrated 100 years since its establishment and was granted heritage town status to boost economic prospects of its residents and make it one of the most important tourist attractions in Selangor.
History
British Malaya era
Coal was first discovered in Malaya in 1908 by Haji Abdul Hadi, a Malay man who was looking for tin near Rawang in Ulu Selangor. Samples were sent to the Inspector of Mines at Kuala Kubu, who forwarded them to the Federated Malay States Geological Survey Department, which sent a geologist to investigate the location of discovery and discovered there are large deposits of coal in this location. There was strong demand in Federated Malay States Railway —especially the tin mining activity—to open up the country to private enterprise. Several interested parties bade for the coal-mining tender. John Archibald Russell initially tried to bid for mining activity under his firm J. A. Russell and Co. but the bid was awarded to Rawang Federated Malay States Coal Syndicate Ltd instead. The company start mining the coal using a diamond drill and hand boring tools but two years later, the company started to lose interest in Batu Arang after discovering the mine has no commercial value. The company then sold the mining concession to John Archibald Russell in 1913. In the same year, however, the price of rubber decreased globally and many people who had been considering buying shares in rubber starting to lose interest. As a result, Russell had to sell some of his past investments and become a major shareholder of Malayan Collieries Limited with help from his associates on June 20, 1914. Malayan Collieries then appointed J. A. Russell and Co. to become general managers and secretaries, and his company issued $1,500,000 worth of capital, in which $500,000 was the working capital, where it was formed on a basis of coal deposits which estimated to be between 10 and 20 million tons of coal and the coal demand was estimated to be around 200,000 tons per year.The company leased of coal deposits, of which were used for surface plant and miners' housing. Mining machinery was ordered from the United Kingdom and the United States. The village then established to serve the coal mining industry, was named "Batu Arang" from the Malay word meaning "stone charcoal". The company hired mining engineer T. C. McCall to manage the mining operations. Federated Malay States Railway then agreed to build an additional railway line that spanned from Kuang to Batu Arang; the new line cost $1 million and was opened to traffic in 1915. The railway company also sold a locomotive designed for shunting to the mining company. In return, the mining company agreed to pay the construction costs of the sidings from Batu Arang station to the pit head. Initially, only one train ran daily between Batu Arang and Kuala Lumpur but the frequency increased as output and demand for coal grew. The mining company also built the road that links the trunk road to the mining area. Bullock carts were used to carry mining equipment and stores to the mining area. The bullock cart was previously used to carry coal to local customers.
The initial output was low; the mine produced an average of 60 tons of coal per day due to it being mined on a small scale and low demand; imported coal was readily available. Most of the coal was used for the colliery's consumption and in 1916, coal from Batu Arang was supplied to two of the largest European tin mines in Malaya. The price of coal was relatively low; it sold at $5 per ton at Batu Arang station. During the First World War, the demand for Batu Arang coal soared as coal imports decreased and then stopped; thereafter, the mining company build new sidings to deal with renewed demand. As of 1939, the mining company conveyed coal and other products to the FSMR system by operating of railway on its property. The main customers for Batu Arang coal were railways, power stations and tin mines, where in 1937, 700 tons of coal were sold to tin dredges, which was followed by the Perak River Hydro-Electric Company, FMSR, Bangsar Power Station and end customers. Thus Batu Arang played an important role in the Malayan economy by introducing electricity to the Malayan state and improving tin mining through dredges, which outpaced Asian methods of mining tin. Coal production peaked in 1940, when Batu Arang produced 781,509 tons of coal.
World War II and decline
During World War II, the colonial official advised the mining company to evacuate Batu Arang on January 5, 1942; the mine's machinery was halted, and stores and portable equipment were handed over to the military and FMSR to be transported to Singapore by rail. The military then used explosives to destroy the power station and its main sub-station. The parent company J. A. Russell and Co. continued to operate in Kuala Lumpur until January 9, 1942, when they fled with their records to Singapore to establish emergency offices and continued to do business there. Once Japanese forces reached Singapore, the company attempted to send all records and equipment to Australia, and open an office there, but the ship conveying them sank on its way to Australia. In Japanese-occupied Malaya, the Japanese hired many men to repair the damaged equipment at Batu Arang and continue mining activity. The resumed mining activity allowed the Japanese army to operate tin mines and run the railway system, allowing them to continue producing and exporting raw minerals from Malaya. Unlike the previous company, which focused on a balance between surface mining and underground mining, the Japanese only mined coal on the surface, which would affect future mining operations due to high operational costs. Prior to their surrender, the Japanese had mined 1,369,834 tons of coal.On September 11, 1945, the British Military Administration took over properties belonging to Malayan Collieries with Indian troops to manage the mine. The Malayan Union government then backed Malayan Collieries from April 1, 1946, until June 30, 1946, when all the properties were returned to the company, which faced several problems that would hamper its coal mining activity. Labor strikes in November 1946 and January 1947 caused the Malayan Government to take over the company under emergency legislation. The shipment of new machinery was delayed and the restoration of coal mining was slowed down by the poor mining methods which had been used by the Japanese, and was further exacerbated by fire and floods in the coal mine. The company could not meet the demand for coal and the increasing operation costs coupled with the rising prices of coal from $12.50 per ton in 1946 to $35.00 per ton in 1959 caused many customers to abandon coal for petroleum. In 1954, the government of Malaya hired a consulting firm, Messrs Powell Duffryn Technical Services Limited, to investigate the future of Malayan coal; the firm concluded it was not feasible to proceed with coal mining activity due to high costs and inability to compete with petroleum. The Batu Arang mine was permanently closed on January 30, 1960. By this time, the mine had produced over 14,000,000 tons of coal.