Hello,

Seeking information on The Punjom & Sunghie Dua Samantan Mining Company, Limited which operated in Pahang. The firm was established about 1885, restructured as the Punjom Mining Co, Ltd about 1892 and liquidated about 1905. I have exhausted the information available on the Internet. I would appreciate being directed to where I might search next.

I am researching this company for a short article aimed at stamp collectors.

No hits on The National Archives defunct company registration files which suggests that the registration may still be alive (but possibly operating under a new name).

No hits in the London Gazette either.

For a limited liability company of this vintage to be absent from both sources is odd.

A dozen web hits for Singapore newspapers and so forth; including a list of annual reports in the Jardine Matheson Archive in Cambridge University. I presume you're already aware of these.

Potential further sources to check:

Stock Exchange Yearbooks.

Stock Exchange Register of Defunct Companies (cumulative book).

Guildhall Library collection of annual reports of public companies.

Mining Journal, Mining Magazine, etc.

Times newspaper - not sure what periods have been digitised.

Companies House register of companies - its absence from TNA suggests a continued legal existence.

Dear Graigfawr,

Thanks you for your quick reply and the source that I will now follow-up on.

Unfortunate the following are not available where I reside:

1. Stock Exchange Yearbooks.
2. Stock Exchange Register of Defunct . Companies (cumulative book).
3. Guildhall Library collection of annual reports of public companies.
4. Mining Journal, Mining Magazine, etc.
5. Companies House register of companies

The Times newspaper might be available through the local reference library - I will check.

Would a history of the firm have appeared in some form? 😞

Interesting that a fair amount of profit as reported in The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser comes from the sale of opium?

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Unfortunate the following are not available where I reside:

1. Stock Exchange Yearbooks.
2. Stock Exchange Register of Defunct . Companies (cumulative book).
3. Guildhall Library collection of annual reports of public companies.
4. Mining Journal, Mining Magazine, etc.
5. Companies House register of companies

The Times newspaper might be available through the local reference library - I will check.

Would a history of the firm have appeared in some form? :(

No.2 should be available on Inter Library Loan anywhere in the UK.

For a company as elusive as this and which throws up so very few web hits, it is vanishingly unlikely that a company history has been written.

Research utilising original sources usually involves travel and expense, I regret to say - only a fraction of material is on (or is ever likely to be on) the web.

Incidentally, what is the company's connection to postage stamps?

Most of their annual reports are available on line in the form of newspaper cuttings, a sketch history could be built from these.

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Interesting snippet;
http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/singfreepressb18911013-1.2.17.aspx 

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And more here:

http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article.aspx?articleid=singfreepressb18911014-1.2.12&sessionid=3a0a1bd89a39432aab8bd691a55075fe&keyword=PUNJOM+and+SUNGEI+DUA+MINING+Co&lang=EN&token=co%2cmining%2cdua%2csungei%2cand%2cpunjom 

http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes18860809.2.27.aspx 

http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes18890305-1.2.21.aspx 

Thank you all for the leads. I have pretty well explored the Singapore papers online - great resource. I have also searched the papers online in the Hong Kong library system.

As for searching the items mentioned by Graigfawr, I live in Toronto, Canada and have searched the catalogue of the U. of Toronto as well as that of the city's reference library system. Unfortunately, not one of these items are available through these resources. Unless someone has personal materiel to share I think that I have all the information I can expect to find. That's OK, I will make due.

http://rodsell.com/hksmsic/hksmsic.html .

Thanks

Have you had a look at the National Library of Australia digital newspaper holdings ? I got a few hits just by searching for Punjom:

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?q=Punjom 

Good article on the manager, Mr Lester, in the Central Queensland Herald.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/70368083?searchTerm=Punjom&searchLimits= 

Cheers

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Thanks for explaining the philatelic connection; I know the type of overprints you refer to; others used perforated initials. I regret not collecting more of these types way back in my philatelic period, but I got diverted into postmarks which rather left behind the actual stamps...

Thanks also for clarifying that you are not UK-based. I now appreciate better the constraints on your research of UK companies. Hopefully the following isn't teaching you how to suck eggs, but a good starting point (which strangely did not work in this instance) is to check the National Archives online catalogue for registration year and to obtain a broad range during which the company was dissolved, and then to search the London Gazette online archives for more detail, especially concerning the circumstances of winding up and the date of striking off. Armed with a TNA company number, a xerox of the company file can be ordered (if it survives). Newspaper searches usually fill in a lot of the gaps.

Thanks again for your help. I have searched the on-line directories of the National Archives as well as the London Gazette - no joy. The firm does not appear to have been registered in Hong Kong nor in the UK. I gather it was registered in Singapore. Will see if I can follow those up.

Am trying another approach. The general manager of the mine was Harry MacDonald Becher (1855-1893) F G S, M.Inst.C.E., A R S M who was born in Simla. I just might be able to get in contact with a descendant through a genealogical website.

Royal School of Mines may be able to provide some background information.

Struck me that even if you cannot find a run of the Mining Journal to consult, you may locate the Mining Magazine which existed during the latter years of the company's existence and may have carried reports.

A Singapore registration would explain the company's absence from the anticipated UK records!

The Autralasian Mining History Association might be worth approaching - they carry queries in the quarterly newsletters.

Might be summat here;
http://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/content/serial/imotp 

Lot of distractions to wade through though:lol:

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I wish to thank you all for your help. I think that I now have all that I need to do a reasonable job.

Thank!