Needle Hill or Cham Shan (Chinese: 針山) is a mountain in New Territories, Hong Kong. It has an altitude of 532 m.[1] This is a part of a popular hiking route including Grassy Hill and Tai Mo Shan. The mountain got its name due to the resemblance of a needle by its peak.
Needle Hill viewed from the Shing Mun Reservoir in December 2010 (image by Vox Solis)
Geography
At around 400 above sea level, it forms a needle-like shape at its peak. The granitic rocks that form this hill is part of a granitic ridge that starts at the Tolo Channel and ends in Kwai Chung.[2]
A Hong Kong Geological Map showing the distribution of the types of rocks there. Needle Hill is in red, which shows it consists of mostly granitic rocks.
Wolframite, a tungsten ore, was discovered at Needle Hill in 1935. It was mined there from 1938 to 1967.[5][6] The mines used to obtain Wolframite ores are now abandoned.[2]
^Lands Department (February 2014), Hong Kong Geographic Data (PDF), retrieved 2014-09-12
^ a b cAgriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (2006-10-17). Central Ridge and West (in English and Chinese). Hong Kong: Cosmos Books Limited. p. 59. ISBN 9882113273.
^AFCD: Shing Mun Country Park
^AFCD: MacLehose Trail Section 7: Shing Mun to Lead Mine Pass
^CEDD: Economic Geology - Metalliferous minerals Archived 2013-12-19 at the Wayback Machine
^Roberts, KJ; Strange, PJ (September 1991). "The geology and exploitation of the Needle Hill wolframite deposit" (PDF). Geological Society of Hong Kong Newsletter. Vol. 9, no. 3. Hong Kong. pp. 29–40.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Needle Hill.
Needle Hill Tungsten Mine at industrialhistoryhk.org
