Anglo-Esyptian] MINERALS (GOLD, ETC. , IRON) 133 in 1918 amounted to 20,880 tons, and the total produc tion of bar gold was 12,419 oz., equivalent to 11,248 standard oz . The company has constructed a light portable railway from No. 6 station on the Khartum Halfarailway to Um Nabardi .

In the Fazogli district (Blue Nile) there are alluvial deposits which have been worked by the natives for centuries, but the best gold washings of this region lie on the Abyssinian side of the frontier. No figures are available, but it is unlikely that more than 200 oz . of gold dust are produced annually by the Sudan native workings . Small deposits also exist at Tira Mandi in the Nuba Mountains and are worked by natives, but the yield is insignificant .

Graphite is reported to exist in the Bongo river district of the Bahr el-Ghazal province. Samples of impure graphite from the Yambio -Meridi road , in the southern Bahr el -Ghazal, have been received at Khartum .

Gypsum and alabaster exist in enormous quantities on the Red Sea coast , forty miles north of Port Sudan . The beds in which the gypsum occurs form hillranges upon the coastal plain, and the large island of Makawa is composed entirely of these . Some of the beds are 30 feet thick ; but the clearest , whitest and purest varieties are found in smaller beds, from 2 to 12 feet thick . There are few good harbours near the deposits; Khor Dongonab , 100 miles north of Suakin , is perhaps the best . The absence of sweet water on the maritime plain is a drawback to working. Gypsum has also been found in the Jebel Abiad, about one hundred miles from the Nile, west of Khandak , in the Dongola province.

Iron . — The Tokar district has yielded samples of massive specular iron ore . Masses of iron ore, forming ironstone mountains, exist in the Bahr el-Ghazal and Upper Nile provinces. Among the Nubian sandstone series, highly ferruginous beds occur. The most important found hitherto occur near Wadi Halfa . These are described as existing in the form of lenticular