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Phuket, formerly known as Thalang and, in Western sources, Junk Ceylon (a corruption of the Malay Tanjung Salang or 'Cape Salang'), is one of the southern provinces (changwat) of Thailand. Neighbouring provinces are Phang Nga and Krabi, but as Phuket is an island it has no land boundaries.<br/><br/> Phuket, which is approximately the size of Singapore, is Thailand’s largest island. The island is connected to mainland Thailand by two bridges. It is situated off the west coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea. Phuket formerly derived its wealth from tin and rubber, and enjoyed a rich and colorful history. The island was on one of the major trading routes between India and China, and was frequently mentioned in foreign ship logs of Portuguese, French, Dutch and English traders. The region now derives much of its income from tourism.
The introduction of the first tin dredger in 1907 allowed the tin mining industry on Phuket to expand into a vast new area that had previously been untouched. Several types of dredges were used locally. Hydraulic dredges sucked the ocean floor for the alluvial deposits of tin through a pipe, separated the tin and discharged the spoil on the shore through a floating pipeline. Elevator dredges employed an endless chain of small buckets to scrape the ocean floor and separate the tin ore from the rest of the spoil, which was discarded back into the ocean. The coastline of Phuket and the surrounding ocean floor have been dramatically altered by dredging for tin.