Muzium Sungai Lembing

Myah Mines


Useful Information

Location: Sungai Lembing, Pahang. Northeast of Kuala Lumpur, 42 km west of Kuantan.
Open: All year Tue-Thu 9-17:30, Fri 9-12, 14-17, Sat-Sun 9-17:30.
Closed Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Hari Raya Aidiladha.
[2007]
Fee: Adults MYR 1, Children (0-11) free, School Pupils in uniform free.
[2007]
Classification: MineTin Mine
Light: LightIncandescent
Dimension: L=322,000 m. VR=700 m.
Guided tours: L=1,500 m.
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address: Sungai Lembing Museum, Sg. Lembing, 26200 Kuantan, Pahang Darul Makmur, Tel: +60-9-541-2378, Fax: +60-9-541-2377. E-mail: contact
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1888 tin ores discovered.
1891 Pahang Consolidated Company Limited (PCCL) gets a 77-year lease.
1905 mining started.
1921 a fire that ravaged shophouses.
1926 floods.
1950s heydays of the mine with 15,000 people working at the mine.
1985 tin prices in the world market collapsed.
1986 mine closed.
2003 mining museum opened.
2012 mine restored for an underground tour.

Description

Sungai Lembing is an old mining town, which once had the biggest tin mine on earth. This was 100 years ago during British colonial days, when Sungai Lembing was founded. During 80 years of mining activities it became the largest, longest and deepest underground tin mine in the world. Today there is a mining museum, which is a must see place, and there are plans to reconstruct a part of the mine as a show mine. This will be completed by rebuilding contemporary bungalows of the British officers.

The tin mine was discovered in 1888 by a London-based mining company. Sultan Pahang Almarhum Sultan Ahman Muazzam Shah I agreed to their proposal and in 1905 mining started. Pahang Consolidated Company Ltd (PCCL) operated in Sungai Lembing for more than 80 years, until the mine finally closed. Tin prices in the world market collapsed, and the mine could not operate any more.

A mining museum highlighting the tin mining industry is located in the former mine manager bungalow in the north of the town. It was opened in 2003 by the Museums and Antiquities Department with the objective to inform about the mining history of Pahang. The exhibition has the following topics, the PCCL, geomorphology, equipment and attire, mining memoir, dioramas, mining economics, and the Wakaf. There is also a so-called mining arcade for children.

Further to the north is an old mine shaft which may be visited, but only from the outside. But it is possible to visit the existing mining company Sungai Lembing Tin by calling the manager (Tel: +60-9-411-766), and to visit the processing factory. [2007]

The museum was very popular since it opened and so Kuantan Municipal Council (MPK) invested MYR 8 million to restore the abandoned mine tunnels and open them as a show mine. The work started in 2012. It will be the first show mine in Malaysia, the design is inspired by show mines in Australia.