About

Raub (Jawi:ﺭﺍﻭﺏ) is both a town and a district in Pahang, Malaysia. The town is situated 110 km from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur and 265 km from Pahang's capital, Kuantan. Raub is one of the oldest towns in Pahang. Raub district consist of 7 mukim (territorial division), namely Batu Talam, Sega, Semantan Ulu, Dong, Ulu Dong, Gali and Tras. An area of 2,271 km², Raub district is situated in west of Pahang and between two range, Titiwangsa Range and Benom Mountain Range. Raub experiences a temperature range between 20 and 30°C annually and an average rainfall about 200 mm.

History
Raub was explored and founded in 18th century. It is a historic gold mining settlement, and the gold mining industry is now undergoing something of a resurgence as the gold price has risen. According to the history, this mining centre was named Raub after a group of miners found a handful of gold in every tray of sand they dig. This is describe by J.A. Richardson in his book, The Geology and Mineral Resources of the Neighbourhood of Raub Pahang. According to him (page 36), "People found that for every "dulang" of sand there was a handful (raub) of gold". The old folks' tale recounts that in the early 19th century, an old man and his two sons discovered gold every time they scooped up the earth in Raub. Thus, the town and the district derived their name from the Malay word raub which means "scoop".

Raub became famous in the early of 20th century for its mining resource (gold). Company operated at the Raub gold mine is the Raub Australian Gold Mine (RAGM), registered in 1889 in Queensland, Australia. RAGM was also known as Raub Gold Mine. At first, the company was known as Australian Syndicate Ltd and later as Australian Gold Mining Co. Ltd in 1892. The company operated in Raub gold mine until 1961.

The mining method used in Raub is shaft mining and started at the Raub Hole. The area involved in the gold mining is Bukit Koman. The mining activity becomes a valuable heritage for Raub district. Most of the main roads in Raub (before 1980s) were named after the RAGM mine managers. Bibby Road, for example, was named after the first manager, William Bibby while Mason Road was also named after one of the mine managers. Bukit Koman was once dubbed "Malaysian capital of gold" as the results of rapid development of gold mining.

A new company, Peninsular Gold, has restarted gold production at the Raub mine. Initially, the company is recovering gold from the tailings dumps from the old mine, but intends to start mining fresh ore in 2011. A major drilling campaign is in progress, exploring for additional resources adjacent and below the old mine.

Communist threat in 1940s in Raub results in erection of new settlements. Among them, Cheroh (1948), Sang Lee (1948), Sungai Ruan (1948), Sungai Chetang (1948), Bukit Koman (1949), Sempalit (1950), Sungai Lui (1950), Tras (1950) and Sungai Klau (1960).

There are lots of British style building in Raub, especially in Mason Road (now known as Jalan Tengku Abdullah). Most of the building in Raub were built during the pre-World War II era. The Police Station of Raub is probably one of the oldest building in Malaysia, it was built in 1905.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raub_District