MINES AND MINING
The first questions asked the natives of Cuba by Columbus and his
company concerned gold and silver, and they heard many tales of the
riches of the unknown interior, but all their searching produced nothing
of value, nor have the succeeding centuries added greatly to what was
first discovered. Some little gold and silver was found, but it amounted
to really nothing, and the mineral riches of the Island remained hidden
until 1524, when copper was discovered near Santiago de Cuba; and here
grew up the little mining town of Cobre (copper). Since that date
deposits of asphaltum, iron, manganese, and salt have been found and
have been worked, but not as they would have been in a well governed and
progressive country.
The mining districts of Cuba are confined almost exclusively to the
mountainous or eastern end of the Island, and so far the province of
Santiago is the chief producer. Its leading product is iron ore, mined
principally by American companies with American corporations. The first
real iron-mining in Cuba began about 1884, when 21,798 tons were shipped
to the United States. This was the first Cuban iron ore received in this
country, and was about one-twenty-third of the total iron ore
importation. In 1897 we received 397,173 tons of Cuban ore, which was
three-fourths of the ore imported. During the years 1884-1897 we
received 3,401,077 tons of Cuban ore.
[Illustration: OLD COPPER MINES AT LA COPERA.]
The ore is a brown hematite, in large quantities, easy to work, of
excellent quality, about sixty-two per cent. iron, and is especially
adapted for the making of Bessemer steel. Though there are many mining
properties, three American companies, the Juragua Iron Company, the
Spanish-American Iron Company, and the Sigua Iron Company, do all the
business. The Juragua does far more than all the others. Its shipments
to the United States in 1897 were 244,817 (5932 tons, in addition, to
Nova Scotia) to 152,356 tons by the Spanish-American Company, which made
its first shipment in 1895, and none by the Sigua Company, which has
shipped, in all, 21,853 tons. The Sigua began operations in 1892, the
Spanish-American in 1885, and the Juragua in 1884. In 1897, the
Spanish-American Company shipped 51,537 tons to foreign countries;
bringing its total output for the year up to 203,893 tons.
Although iron ore of the best quality outcrops in many places on the
estates once devoted to coffee on the southern slope of the coast range,
it was not until the year 1881 that the first claim was located, or
"denounced." Since then more than a hundred locations have been
denounced in this range (the Sierra Maestro), both to the east and the
west of the city of Santiago de Cuba. Of these denouncements the most
important, and in fact the only ones that have ever been worked, are to
the east of the city, covering a distance of twenty odd miles along the
range, a few miles in from the coast. The deposit is not continuous, but
there are numerous separate deposits along this distance; some of them
very extensive.
In order to encourage the mining of this ore, the Crown of Spain issued,
on the 17th of April, 1883, a royal decree to the following effect: That
for a period of twenty years from that date, the mining companies should
be free from all tax on the surface area of all claims of iron or
combustibles; that ores of all classes should be free from all export
taxes; that coal brought in by mining companies for use in their work
should be free from all import taxes; that combustibles and iron ore
should be exempted from the three per cent. tax on raw materials; that
mining and metallurgical companies should be free from all other
impost; that for a period of five years the mining companies should be
exempt from the payment of duties on all machinery or materials required
for working and transporting the ore; that vessels entering in ballast
and sailing with ore should pay a duty of five cents per ton navigation
dues, and that vessels entering with cargo destined for the mining
companies should pay $1.30 per ton navigation and port dues on all such
cargo, and on the remainder of the cargo as per general tariff.
Under this charter the Juragua Iron Company, Limited, opened mines in
Firmeza, laid a railroad twenty miles long from that point to La Cruz in
Santiago Bay, where fine docks and piers were built, and, in 1884,
shipped the first cargo of iron ore from Cuba. The company has a fine
fleet of iron steamers. The mines of this company were extensively and
successfully worked, and, encouraged by this, the Spanish-American
Company and the Sigua Company purchased mines to the east of the Juragua
properties and at once began the work of developing them.
The Spanish-American Iron Company, incorporated under the laws of West
Virginia, and owned entirely by American citizens, built four miles of
standard-gauge railroad from its mines to Daiquiri Bay, about sixteen
miles east of the harbour of Santiago de Cuba. Here the company
constructed a steel ore-dock of 3000 tons capacity, a landing-pier,
buoys, moorings, and other harbour improvements at a cost of $500,000.
The work of preparing this harbour delayed the opening of the mines for
shipment, and it was not until May, 1895, that the first cargo was
cleared.
The Sigua Iron Company built a standard-gauge road nine miles long from
its mines to Sigua Bay, and there constructed a breakwater and a wooden
ore-dock. This company during the first two years of operation shipped
21,853 tons. Later, the mines were closed, and during the war between
Spain and the Cubans the dock, roundhouse, locomotives, and buildings of
the company at Sigua Bay were entirely destroyed in the course of an
engagement between the Spanish and the Cuban forces.
The Spanish-American Iron Company and the Juragua Iron Company remained
in operation during the entire war between Spain and Cuba, and, although
located at the extreme outpost of the Spanish troops, with Cuban forces
in the immediate vicinity, maintained throughout a strict neutrality,
and continued shipping ore until they were closed by order of the
Spanish authorities, after the declaration of war between the United
States and Spain.
The three companies, which are the only ones that have ever operated
mines in the province, represent an investment of American capital of
about $8,000,000, and the two still operating have paid into the
Treasury of the United States more than $2,000,000 in import duties on
iron ore. The following table shows the production of iron ore in the
province from 1884 to 1897:
------+------------------------------------------------------
| PRODUCTION.
YEARS.+----------+----------------+-------------+------------
| Juragua |Spanish-American|Sigua Iron | Total Tons.
| Company. | Iron Company. | Company. |
------+----------+----------------+-------------+------------
1884 | 23,977| .... | .... | 23,977
1885 | 80,095| .... | .... | 80,095
1886 | 110,880| .... | .... | 110,880
1887 | 94,810| .... | .... | 94,810
1888 | 204,475| .... | .... | 204,475
1889 | 255,406| .... | .... | 255,406
1890 | 356,060| .... | .... | 356,060
1891 | 261,620| .... | .... | 261,620
1892 | 320,859| .... | .... | 320,859
1893 | 334,341| .... | 12,000[1]| 346,341
1894 | 153,650| .... | .... | 153,650
1895 | 302,050| 74,992 | .... | 377,041
1896 | 291,561| 114,110 | .... | 405,671
1897 | 246,530| 206,029 | .... | 452,559
------+----------+----------------+-------------+------------
Total | 3,036,314| 395,131 | [17] |3,443,444
------+----------+----------------+-------------+------------
It is interesting to note that none of the mines are worked underground.
The ore outcrops on the sidehills, and the mining is in the nature of
quarrying. Daiquiri, the port of the Spanish-American Company, is the
point at which General Shafter's army landed; and the dock, pier,
mooring, buoys, and water supply of the place were of great value to the
army and to the vessels of the navy. The Spanish forces, who abandoned
Daiquiri when the United States troops landed, set fire to the shops,
roundhouse, docks, pier, warehouse, and cars of the company. Through the
efforts of the company's men, who were waiting in the hills and who
returned as soon as the bombardment ceased, the fire was partly
extinguished; but the locomotives, shops, some cars, and a number of
buildings were a total loss. The hospital buildings and a number of
dwellings at Daiquiri were afterwards burned by order of the United
States officers commanding. At Siboney, the Juragua Company's village, a
number of buildings were also burned by order of the United States
officers in command.
Rich deposits of iron ore of several varieties are found in the
provinces of Santa Clara and Puerto Principe, and some work has been
done in developing, but the war put an end to it.
The following list of the mining properties, all in the province of
Santiago, with the number of acres, condition, etc., may be useful as
reference:
Dorothea and Recrio 4 mines, 300 acres For sale
Carpintero 9 " 1300 " "
Bayamitas 5 " 925 "
Guama 6 " 950 "
Cuero 6 " 760 " For sale
De la Plata 9 " 975 " Sigua Company
Uvera and Jaqueca 12 " 1557 " 10 for sale
Berracoe 4 " 502 " $150,000 refused
Cajobaba 8 " ---- For sale
Economia 19 " 2650 " "
Providencia 3 " ---- "
Madalena 8 " 1000 " 4 "
Demajobo 1 " 150 " "
Juragua Group 17 " 2500 " 11 "
Sevilla 11 " 1300 " "
[Illustration: MINING CAMP AT FIRENEZA.]
All these mining properties are from two hundred to fifteen hundred feet
above the sea, and though the climate is hot, the region is not affected
by fevers or malaria, and it may be said to be the most healthful
section of the Island. This location is excellent for mining and
shipping also, being from five to sixty miles from Santiago; and nearly
all of the properties have excellent outlets to the sea or are
conveniently located to rail facilities. Nature as usual in Cuba has
done her share, except in the production of man, and the most serious
drawback to mining is the want of proper labour. The whites, except of
the Latin races, are not equal to the work, and the blacks are
inefficient as compared with the same class of labour in higher
latitudes. The labour problem here, as in all other Cuban industrial
fields, is the most serious which confronts capital, and its solution is
to be reached only after careful study and continued experiment. All
kinds of suggestions have been offered and many of them acted upon; but
so far the problem is unsolved, and now capital looks most to the Latin
races of Europe and the black race of the United States for assistance
out of its difficulties. What inducements new Cuba offers to these
people remains to be seen, but it is apparent that capital must do more
in Cuba for labour, if it will secure what is best, than is done for it
in those parts of the world where climate, disease, and social
environments do not lay additional burdens upon the "hewers of wood and
the drawers of water."
Manganese, which is an essential raw material in the manufacture of
Bessemer and open-hearth steel, is found in greater or less quantities
in the province of Santiago de Cuba. The deposits lie in the San Maestro
range on the south coast, extending over a distance of one hundred miles
between Santiago and Manzanillo. As the demand in the United States for
manganese was far in excess of the native supply, and the nearest known
mines were in the neighbourhood of the Black Sea in Europe and in the
northern part of South America, attention was at once drawn to the
Cuban deposits and one American company was formed, known as the Panupo
Iron Company, sixteen miles north of Santiago, with a railroad extending
to that point. Other companies also began work, and the shipments from
1890 to 1893 inclusive amounted to 62,601 tons. In 1894 there was none,
and in 1895-96 the total shipments were 750 tons. This decrease in
business was due, in some measure, to low prices and to other causes
than the insurrection and war, but that was the prime factor in the
cause of the decrease, because already, with the promise of peace,
mining has been resumed, with every prospect of continued increase and
prosperity. Though only comparatively small efforts have as yet been
made to develop the capacity of these mines, numerous properties have
been staked off, and it is estimated that there are eighty-eight
manganese mines in sight along the San Maestro range. The appended list
names some of them:
Hatillo 400 acres
Cobre 2 mines, 425 " $50,000 refused
Macio 4 " 4345 " Unopened
Ramas 3 " 330 " For sale
San Andres 5 " 440 "
Santa Filomena 2 " 300 "
Bueycito Manzanillo section Undeveloped
Portillo 8 mines, 700 acres Discontinued
Boniato 1 " 472 "
Dos Bocas 11 " 905 "
Margarita 4 " 1077 "
Quemado 5 " 322 "
Boston 10 " 665 "
San Juan
In the majority of these, no active mining operations have been carried
on. Whatever conditions of taxation, duties, and other expenses on the
production of manganese existed previously have been changed by the war,
and entirely new conditions are presented now for the continuance of the
work. It is believed that the mines are practically inexhaustible, and
that the metal, while varying considerably in quantity, is in the main
high grade and can be mined and shipped at prices which will extend the
industry until the United States steel manufacturers will get their
entire manganese supply from this nearest known manganese district.
Copper. It is believed that the natives mined copper long before
Columbus discovered the Island, for copper ornaments have been found,
not only in Cuba, but in Florida, long antedating 1492. Whatever may
have been true of prehistoric periods, it is known that the mines at
Cobre in the province of Santiago de Cuba were opened as early as 1524
and became the greatest copper-producing mines of the world. As high as
fifty tons of ore a day have been mined from them. Some of these mines
were sunk to the distance of nine hundred to twelve hundred feet. Before
the development of the great copper deposits in the United States, this
country received the output of the Cuban mines, which were worked by
English capital. From 1828 to 1840 between two million and three million
dollars' worth of copper was annually shipped to this country, besides
shipments to other countries. Owing to the fact that below three hundred
feet these mines were beneath the level of the sea, the pumping problem
was difficult of solution and expensive, and at last, in 1867, this
hindrance, combined with the development of copper deposits in the
United States, which cut prices materially, stopped work. The shafts
filled with water and have remained so. The only work that has been done
was an attempt by a Cuban company to work the copper found in solution
in the water. It is believed that there are still rich and valuable
deposits of copper in this section and that the time will come when the
red glory of Cobre will again be restored to its ancient prestige.
Gold and silver. Some discoveries of gold have been made in various
parts of Cuba and in the Isle of Pines, and some placer mining has been
done along a few of the rivers, but it is believed that the quantity
found will scarcely justify the opinion that Cuban gold will ever make
much of a showing in the world's product of the yellow metal. Silver
appears far better. Deposits have been found in the provinces of Santa
Clara, Puerto Principe, and Santiago. Some silver has also been found in
other parts of the Island and on the Isle of Pines. As early as 1827
silver was mined in the Manicaragua district, province of Santa Clara,
said to yield seventy-five ounces per ton; and near the town of Santa
Clara deposits yielding $200 per ton were prospected fifty years ago. In
the lead mines of Santiago de Cuba, some silver has been found yielding
nineteen ounces to the ton. More work was done in the Santa Clara mines
than elsewhere; in fact little has been done in any of them, but the
deposits in Santa Clara did not continue of sufficient richness to pay
for working them, and in recent years nothing has been done in Cuban
silver mining. Reaching a conclusion by way of the geology of Cuba and
of the other West Indian islands, it may be safely predicted that the
prosperity which is promised for Cuba, and which is sure to come soon,
will raise the Cuban silver mines to their former productiveness.
Lead. This metal, reported to exist in several localities, has had no
development save in Santiago de Cuba, where two or three mines have been
opened. One of them shows a twenty-inch vein, forty-six per cent.
copper, with some silver and zinc and a trace of gold. The mines so far
have been opened by American "boomers" for the purpose of bringing the
properties into notice.
Coal. A serious deficiency in Cuban products is mineral fuel; and
although coal is said to exist and, again, said not to exist on the
Island, Mr. Frederick W. Ramsden, late British Consul at Santiago, made
the following report in 1895:
"A deposit of coal has been found at five leagues of the Dos
Caminos railway station, or about fifteen leagues north-north-west
of Santiago. A sample sent to the United States analysed as
follows:
[Illustration: ORE BANK OF JURAGUA MINES.]
Per Cent. Remarks.
Moisture 13.20 Specific gravity 1.368.
Volatile combustible 49.20 One cubic yard weighs 2303 pounds.
Half sulphur 47.76
Fixed carbon 28.48 This sample is fairly black, and when powdered
it contains visible layers of pyrites
and no appreciable bitumen.
Half sulphur 27.04
Ash 9.12
Sulphur 2.88
"I understand, however, that since this sample was taken the mines
have been partially opened up and a better class of coal found
lower down. No estimate has been formed as to the quantity of coal
there, as no investigations have so far been made with this object.
I am informed, however, that the geological formation is
favourable."
Some of the coal reported in other sections of the Island proves to be
either a lignite or a hardened bitumen. Possibly workable deposits of
coal exist somewhere, and efforts will be made to explore thoroughly
every locality where there is the slightest coal prospect, as so much
depends in the development of manufacturing industries upon contiguous
and cheap fuel.
Asphaltum. Asphaltum appears to be a very general product of the Island
and of the water along its shores. Deposits of it show in every
province, in some localities in inexhaustible quantities; the deposits
at Cardenas and Santa Clara take the lead in development. As much as ten
thousand tons a year have been shipped from Santa Clara. At and near
Cardenas the deposits are found in the bottom of the bay, and the method
of securing it is peculiar. A shaft eighty feet or more in depth below
the surface extends into the sea-bottom; and into this the asphalt runs
or filters. It is supposed that the supply is brought from the interior
through the subterranean rivers which prevail in this locality,--from
which, indeed, Cardenas gets its water supply. Over this shaft the ship
is anchored; from her deck a heavy bar of iron attached to a rope is
dropped, and the asphalt is broken from the sides of the shaft and
falls to the bottom, where it is scooped up into a net and loaded into
the vessel. As this work has been going on for years and the asphalt
replenishes itself constantly, it is fair to suppose that the run will
go on for ever. It is of such quality as to be worth from $80 to $125
per ton in New York, and a ship has gathered as much as three hundred
tons in three weeks. This and two other mines, of not such good quality,
are immediately in the bay of Cardenas; and near Diana Key is the great
Constancia mine, covering a circumference of one hundred and fifty or
more feet, from which twenty thousand tons have been taken; yet there is
no diminution in the quality of the deposit. There are several other
smaller deposits in this locality. As asphalt is so general in Cuba and
the mines are so generous in their yield, even under the crude methods
adopted, it is only to be concluded that the asphaltum industry of the
Island has a bright outlook; and when it is understood what a fine
paving material asphalt is, and how greatly paving is needed in the
streets of Cuban towns, it seems to be almost providential that so sore
a need has healing so close at hand, demanding only enlightenment and
energy to apply it.
Quicksilver is known to exist, though in small quantities, and as yet
not enough has been found to pay for the working. Nickel is also said to
exist. Petroleum is found in several parts of the Island, and in and
near Manzanillo it comes out of the ground and rocks in a remarkably
pure state. Natural gas may yet be found, for a gasoline mine near Santa
Clara clearly indicates its presence. Marble of fine quality is reported
in the Isle of Pines and in a number of localities in Cuba, but its
superiority may be slightly doubted, as its grain is somewhat coarse and
it lacks the proper density. The same may be said of such building stone
as has been thus far produced. However, so very little has been done in
developing any of these products and giving them fair tests, that
definite conclusions as to quantity and quality cannot be justly reached
at present.