"ملف 8/15 سلسلة الجزيرة العربية - ١٩٣٣-١٩٣٩" [ظ‎‎١‎٠‎٣] (٤٣٤/٢٠٦)

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5. The Mahd-adh-Dhahab gold mine, which is situated at 24° 15' N.,
and 41° 10' E. at a height of 3,550 feet above sea level, is said to have been
worked by Hanm-ar-Rashid and perhaps even earlier in the times of the
Jahilfya. The extensive workings and the large area covered by ruined build
ings show that a great number of workmen were employed in those times.
Mr. Twitchell is now seeking to prove that the workings were not exhausted
of their gold, but were abandoned either through the lack of engineering
equipment and the knowledge how to mine deeper, or through the failure
of the water-supply or from political reasons.
6. Mr. Twitcheli has been working at this mine himself and says he
is very gratified with the results so far obtained in the mining of gold.
There are, I believe, also subsidiary metals. He foreshadowed early
developments and hoped to start diamond drilling, the machinery for
which was on its way. Mr. Twitchell is, however, faced with many pro
blems. I am not competent to judge the scheme from a technical mining
point of view, but engineering problems may well be small compared with
other factors such as the supply of water and communications with Medina
and the coast.
7. Mr. Twitchell confessed to me in conversation that the water
supply was indeed a problem and said it might be necessary to sink a well.
At present water is found in the surrounding districts at Maden (3 kilom.),
Jiraisiya (10 kilom.), and Suwaijiya (50 kilom.), while at the mine itself
Mr. Twitchell has discovered a shaft containing water, estimated at about
7,000 gallons, which he intends to reserve for use in connexion with the
diamond drilling.
8. With his usual energy and with Mr. van de Poll’s local knowledge
in support, Mr. Twitcheil has set to work to solve the problem of communi
cations. Mahd-adh-Dhahab lies, as the crow flies, some 100 miles from
Medina and 240 from Jedda. The original plan was to use Yanbu as a
base, being only 200 miles from the mine, but during these four months
the road has been found very difficult. Non-Moslems have to leave the
beaten track from Yanbu to Medina and circle the forbidden area to the
north, making the road distance about 315 miles, and mostly over abomi
nable ground of Harat lava, where in the winter the trucks were once
or twice held up by rain floods. This combined with the abandonment
of the workings at Yanbu-an-Nakhl have induced the syndicate to consider
the possibility of a road from Jedda, which will be a little longer than the
Yanbu road, and which would give the advantages of quicker external
communication through the larger port. They are accordingly now occu
pied in prospecting three alternate routes:—
(1) Jedda-Asfan-A1 Birka-Mahd-adh-Dhahab.
(2) Jedda-Rabigh-Madh-adh-Dhahab.
(3) A route between these two.
None of these routes is at all practical at the moment; to quote Mr. van de
Poll, who made a preliminary prospecting journey through to the mine on
the Rabigh route, he only went forward because he knew he could not go
back. It remains to be seen which, if any, of these three routes are chosen.
9. Well sinking, road making and the provision of food and medical
treatment in the middle of unknown desert can only be a costly affair; it
argues a wealth of optimism in the promoters in the possibilities of the
undertaking.
10. I am sending copies of this despatch to the Department of Over
seas Trade and to the High Commissioner for Transjordan at Jerusalem*
mm