'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎229] (238/568)

COMMERCE AKD INDUSTRY 229
craftsman constructs the barrels (spirally welded strips of sheet-iron),
anothei the locks and springs, a third puts together and browns the
arms, and an agent sells them, the cheapest for the dearest for
£T4. These rifles are fairly reliable up to 500 yards. They can be
turned out at the rate of about 9,000 a year.
Mining. The only important mines that have been recently
woiked in this area are the copper-mines at Arghana Ma'den
about 45 miles NW. of Diarbekr. In 1907 there were three shafts,
two of which (called Sejak and Serhosh) were the property of the
Government, while the third (called Lam) belonged to the inhabitants
of the neighbourhood. The Government shaft ' Serhosh', which was
the only one working, was leased to the inhabitants of Arghana
Ma den, who are mostly Greeks and Armenians. The ore was mined
with hand-picks and blasted with native powder made at Egil.
Wood-fuel brought from the neighbouring hills was used in the
smelting furnaces. Between 1900 and 1906 the yearly average of
copper produced was 2,350,000 lb., and the average estimated value
of the output was about .£36,500. In 1913 the export of copper from
Diarbekr (presumably from these mines) was valued at £35,700. The
ill produce went to the United Kingdom. It has been stated that not
long before the war the mines were closed down owing to the
exhaustion of the supply of wood-fuel on which they depended ; but
it has been reported recently that they are now being worked' and
that modern machinery has been ordered for them.
Coal is worked at Nasaleh in the neighbourhood of Kufri (Sala-
hiyeh). Small quantities, of poor quality, were obtained here before
the war, but the Turks recently developed the workings and seem
to have obtained in 1916 a fair quality of coal at the rate of 40-50
tons a day.
Some of the coal, iron, and lead deposits in the hill-country of
upper Mesopotamia (see pp. 57-8) have been worked intermittently
on a small scale.
Quarrying.—-The principal quarrying industry is that of the
Mosul district. Fursh, a soft bluish marble, is exported thence to
Baghdad.
Oil and Pitch Production. —The Anglo-Persian Oil Company holds
a concession which gives it the exclusive right to bore for oil in
Persia except in the northern provinces of Azerbaijan, Gilan, Mazan-
deran, Astarabad, and Khorasan. When the Turco-Persian frontier
was delimited in 1914 certain petroliferous areas in the Mandali
Khanikin—Qasr-i-Shlrln region were transferred from Persia to
Turkey; but the Turkish Government confirmed the rights of the
j company on the transferred territory. The British Government,