Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c25.s2.4

v1.c25.s2.4

Cassiterite is often found in the form of water-concentrated placer deposits, referred to as ‘stream tin’. Tylecote (1962: 63) suggested that the ancient metallurgists might have exploited (and exhausted) placer deposits of ‘stream tin’ rather than vein deposits which are hard to mine. Such surface accumulations in the proximity of the Aravalli and Chota Nagpur Hills might have been, according to Hegde, one of the sources of tin in ancient India.