Gold began being mined in Bau in the 1840s. It was discovered by Chinese miners from Pangkalan Tebang. After the Chinese uprising by Liu Shan Bang in 1857, the mining operations were gradually taken over by "The Borneo Company" with the last Chinese syndicate being bought out in 1884. In 1898, "The Borneo Company" introduced the cyanide process for extracting the gold, which led to increased environmental pollution. The mines were closed in 1921 because most of the minerals, easily reachable by existing techniques, had been removed. But during the Great Depression Chinese miners continued to artisanally mine the deposits. The mines were reopened in the late 1970s when world gold prices soared, but were closed down again in 1996 when the Asian financial crisis started. The last mining occurred at the Tai Parit open-pit mine.