The gold rush in Malaya began in the early 19th century in the village of Raub in Pahang which became known as “the Malaysian capital of gold”. The gold was so abundant that prospectors named it “Raub” which means in Malay, “Scoop with one’s hands”, as J.A. Richardson explains in his book, The Geology and Mineral Resources of the Neighbourhood of Raub, Pahang : “People found that for every ‘dulang‘ (‘tray’) of sand there was a ‘raub‘ (‘handful’) of gold”.
Gold is found mainly in Pahang in the western part of mountains which run through the centre of the peninsula at Raub, Selinsing and Penjom, from the Bera District to the Jelai river basin, although gold is also mined in smaller quantities in Kelantan and Trengganu.
Until the end of the 19th century mining at Raub, also called Bukit Koman, was carried out by individuals using traditional methods and on a small scale. It was in 1889 that the area became famous worldwide when an Australian company, the Raub Australian Gold Mine Co. Ltd (RAGM) began extensive mining operations using the shaft method, vertical or near vertical tunnels to extract the ore. RAGM continued its mining operations up until 1961.
The growth of the gold mining industry attracted many people to the area, and the town of Raub in particular saw rapid expansion with the construction of many new buildings. Today visitors to the town can see many colonial style buildings which have been preserved from the era such as the old police station. The main road was named Bibby Road after William Bibby, the manager of the Australian mining company, and Mason Road (now Jalan Tengku Abdulla) after J.S.Mason, the First District Officer.
Yields from commercial gold mining at Raub initially were apparently lacklustre. In his book The Illustrated Guide To the Federated Malay States, Cuthbert Woodville Harrison states,-
“In Pahang only is there a gold mine of any importance, namely, the Raub mine. Here a low-grade proposition of a fraction over two and a half pennyweights to the ton is being worked at a small profit, the recovery being 13,159 ounces from 99,473 tons in 1914.”
However, these low yields of gold at the beginning of the 20th century were due to the relative inefficiencies in the mining methods at the time compared with those used in modern mining. The gold was there in abundance underground as the production figures for the Raub mine from the modern era show, when, in 1985, nearly 1,000,000 ounces was produced, a huge increase in yield from 13,159 ounces in 1914; and represented 85% of the of gold production of the Malay Peninsula.
Adapted from : https://britishmalaya.home.blog/2022/07/29/the-gold-rush-in-malaya/