'Military report on Tehran and adjacent Provinces of North-West Persia (including the Caspian Littoral)' [‎156r] (316/610)

Adjacent strata of harder formations have been forced into them
and the coal has been crushed into a fissile slaty structure which
allows it to fall to pieces when mined.
Seams less damaged are of *good quality. The coal is free
from ash and burns with a clear flame and strong heat.
The coal near the surface has been further denuded by the
effects of weather and the outcrops on the hillsides often show
only a few inches of blackened earth, whereas underground the
seams thicken and improve in quality, their thickness varying
from 6 inches to 4 feet.
Method of Mining.—The seams lead into the hillsides verti
cally at an average angle of 45° from the surface where the out
crop appears.
Shafts are run down into the seam until they are swamped by
water entering faster than roughly constructed rope rolls with
goatskin buckets can bale it out. This generally occurs at a
depth of about 10 yards. The shaft is then abandoned and a
fresh one commenced, until the hillside becomes riddled with
shafts, while the better quality coal at lower levels remains
out of reach and untouched by these primitive methods.
Possibilities of Development .—The use of scientific appliances
would of course increase the output and provide coal of better
quality. In the case of the first two above-mentioned coalfields
the difficulties of transport and climate would, however, curtail
profits. The Lar coal.ield is reached by an easy camel route
via Lavasan and a road could be constructed without great
difficulty, but it is situated at an average elevation of 7,000'
above sea level and is under snow from November to June,
when the district is deserted.
Darbandisar is equally elevated and can only be reached by
pack mules. The track passes up a gorge for 4 miles above
Migun which is too rocky and precipitous for camels and would
make the construction of a road most difficult.
The third coalfield, i.e., around Abiyak, is easy of access
from the Tehran-Kazvin road and at an elevation of between
4,000' and 4,400' has not such great extremes of climate . Its
output could consequently be increased by proper working.
These coal seams in the hills are, however, too contorted
and broken to admit of coal mining on a large scale.
It is surmised that similar strata and coal seams, undisturbed
by the upheaval which raised the mountains, underlie the
* It usually, however, reaches Tehran in a pulverised condition after trans- -
port on pack animals.