GOLD MINING IN BOLIVIA--TUPIZA AND ITS MINES--BISMUTH
Gold mining in Bolivia has not attracted so much attention in recent
years as its importance merits, though there was a time when the fame
of this country as a gold producer nearly eclipsed the universal
renown of its vast wealth of silver. In the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, which marked only the beginning of their development, the
mines of Alto Peru yielded in gold, according to the authority of
Humboldt, about two billion dollars, and in the eighteenth century
the mine of Chuquiaguillo alone produced more than one hundred and
twenty-five million dollars in gold. It is a remarkable fact that this
mine has not once failed to yield large quantities of gold annually,
ever since its discovery.
[Illustration: DISTANT GLIMPSE OF TUPIZA, THROUGH A TUNNEL.]
The history of the Chuquiaguillo mine is as old as that of the Incas,
who received tribute from their Collasuyo subjects in the gold nuggets
of this wonderful stream. Like the Chuquiapu, of which it is a small
tributary, the Chuquiaguillo received its name from the Indians, in
whose language the word means “heir of gold.” The mine is situated in
the beautiful valley of Poto-Poto, about a league distant from La Paz,
where the Spaniards found the Indians engaged in washing gold at the
time of the invasion. Many thousands of Indians worked at the task of
gathering gold for the Inca, and the settlement in which they lived was
the Chuquiapu on the site of which the Spaniards founded the present
city of La Paz.
The conqueror himself, Don Francisco Pizarro, was the first
_dueño_, or owner, of the mine of Chuquiaguillo after the fall
of the Inca empire. History does not record the amount taken out
of the mine while under the exploitation of Pizarro’s agents; but
during the colonial period huge nuggets were frequently found, one
of these treasures, which was sent to the Museum of Madrid in 1718,
weighing forty-seven pounds and eight ounces. The extraordinary
feature of this mine is that it appears inexhaustible, great nuggets,
or _pepitas_, being continually found. After the Spaniards were
expelled from the country, Chuquiaguillo passed into the hands of
various _dueños_, all of whom were made rich by its gold. One of
these proprietors found a nugget of twenty-two pounds in weight.
[Illustration: RICH GOLD MINING REGION OF CHUQUIAGUILLO, NEAR
LA PAZ.]
[Illustration: ADMINISTRATION HOUSE, CHUQUIAGUILLO MINES,
NEAR LA PAZ.]
In 1901 the Chuquiaguillo valley, with its rich gold mine, became the
property of a German company; and under the able administration of
the present director, Mr. Joseph Antonio Sedelmayr, the production
has been increased greatly beyond what it was a few years ago. The
latest improvements in machinery and other working apparatus have
been made, the modern installations used in California placer mines
being adopted, with some monitors which give the very best results.
The earth is very rich in metal, a cubic mètre yielding thirty-five
cents gold. The quantity of gravel appears inexhaustible, as the
_cerros_ are immense. Water is brought from the neighboring snow
mountains, and there is sufficient incline to the valley to carry off
the tailings. With other machinery which it is the purpose of the
company to add to that already in use, the output of Chuquiaguillo may
be enormously increased. So recently as March 22, 1905, a gold and
quartz nugget weighing fifty-two ounces, of which forty-five ounces
were pure gold, was taken from the mine, this handsome specimen being
now in the possession of Messrs. Speyer and Company, of New York. The
annual production of the mine since 1900 has been about an average of
sixty kilogrammes, though the increase has been notable since 1902.
The value of the gold taken out amounts to nearly one hundred thousand
bolivianos annually. The _cerros_ are so rich in metal, that the
gravel which is washed down from their sides yields thirty-five cents
worth of gold per cubic mètre, and nuggets as large as almonds are
not rare. The process of bringing the gold-bearing gravel down to the
river is by means of a hose which ejects a powerful stream that when
turned on the _cerro_ dislodges the earth, bringing the rich
pebbles down to the base. In a beautiful locality, overlooking the
valley, the administration house of the company is situated, and here
the director receives his guests, entertaining them with the most
charming hospitality. No _paseo_ is more popular than a day’s
outing at Chuquiaguillo, which is reached after a short horseback ride
from La Paz through one of the prettiest of valleys, presenting many
picturesque scenes along the route, and ending at the administration
mansion. Every foreigner who visits La Paz and enjoys the honor of
being a guest of the courtly _dueño_ of Chuquiaguillo remembers it
as a distinguished occasion.
There are other rich placer gold mines besides Chuquiaguillo in the
department of La Paz which have yielded enormous treasure. As stated
elsewhere, one of the most celebrated gold-bearing regions of Bolivia
is in the province of Larecaja, in the neighborhood of Sorata, where
the river Tipuani, which flows down from the snow-covered peak,
contains large quantities of the precious metal. The gravel deposits
in this river are so great that at a depth of one hundred feet no rock
bottom is found, the production of gold increasing with the depth
of the gravel. Tipuani gold is from twenty-two to twenty-three and
one-half carats fine, and so abundant that the owners of the richest
mine of this region, Señores Villamil, obtained during the fifty years
from 1818 to 1868 one hundred and fifty-one thousand ounces of gold.
Much of this gold comes in flat grains of the size of a melon seed,
and it is always of high standard. Not only from the heights of the
mountain Sorata, or Illampu, but from the other _cerros_ of the
chain which joins it to Illimani further south, innumerable streams
flow into the valleys of the Yungas of La Paz which carry gold in the
gravel that is found in their currents. Cajones, in the Yungas, is one
of the richest gold streams. It is a singular fact that while quartz
lodes have been discovered in different places about the headwaters of
the ravines through which the gold-bearing rivers flow, they do not
appear to correspond at all in richness to the deposits lower down.
The rich placer mines of Yani and Tacacoma are in the same province as
those of Tipuani.
In the province of Caupolican, the river Suches is noted for the
abundance and quality of gold found in its sand and gravel, and
this district presents the advantage of being within convenient
distance of the shipping ports, as the town of Suches, the chief
centre of the mining in this river, is situated only forty miles
from the port of Lake Titicaca, and two hundred miles from La Paz.
A great many rich placer mines have remained unexploited because of
their inaccessibility. All around La Paz gold is continually being
discovered, nearly every river having some gold-bearing gravel in
its course. The Cerro Illimani contains gold in abundance, and it is
related that in the year 1681, a lightning stroke detached a huge rock
from the side of the mountain which was found to be enormously rich in
the precious metal. All the streams that flow from Illimani contain
gold, such as the Palca, Calacoto, Chungamayo, and others. The gold
mines of Vila-haque, near La Paz, were famous in the times of the
Incas, and are worked to-day.
Gold has been taken from the streams of Loayza province ever since
colonial times, and the gold district of Araca, which lies at the
foot of the Tres Cruces Range, is said by mining engineers to be one
of the richest in Bolivia, lack of capital having prevented its full
development in recent years. Under Spanish rule the celebrated gold
mine of San Francisco, which belonged to a fabulously rich Spaniard,
named Don Diego de Baena, brought an income of two million dollars
gold, which the chronicle says the worthy miner spent to build the
magnificent church of San Francisco in La Paz and the Cathedral in
Oruro. He suspended the working of the San Francisco mine because of
inundations. A mining expert, reporting on this district, says: “Many
millions of dollars have been taken out of the gold mines of Araca,
and much more could be obtained if capital were forthcoming for their
exploitation.” The quartz vein of the Araca mines is very wide, the
standard varying between five and twelve grains per ton of two thousand
two hundred and forty pounds when treated by amalgamation, which, by
the way, is an unsatisfactory method, as about thirty per cent of the
gold is lost owing to the extreme fineness of the gold particles. A
difficulty encountered in the exploitation of many of these mines is
that of securing modern machinery for the treatment of the gold so that
every unnecessary waste may be avoided. The Araca district has not been
fully surveyed, though mining authorities say that what is known as the
Rosario belt contains a million cubic mètres of gold quartz, and it is
estimated that more than half a million tons could be worked with rich
results. In Inquisivi, also, there are gold mines of great promise.
[Illustration: MOUNTAIN OF CHOROLQUE, SITE OF THE HIGHEST TIN
AND BISMUTH MINES IN THE WORLD.]
The department of Cochabamba, which is rich in products of every
description, can boast of some of the most valuable gold mines of
Bolivia. Choquecamata, situated about seventy-five miles from the
capital city of the department in the _serrania_ of Tetillas,
is the centre of an extensive mining region. The central part of the
_serrania_ consists of granite and quartz, the Choquecamata River
containing gold-bearing gravel from the point of its junction with the
Potrero, at Encañada, over a distance of six miles down its course.
It is an excellent mining region, the conditions being favorable for
its development on a large scale by the hydraulic system. At their
confluence the two rivers have made a new channel which cuts across
the former channel of the Choquecamata, leaving a wide dry space, rich
in gold-bearing gravel. It was here the mines were first discovered
and worked by the Spaniards in 1740, and from this marvellously rich
deposit, covering little more than half a league, which was called
the Angostura, meaning “narrows,” gold was taken out to the value of
more than forty million dollars. It is located at an altitude of about
twelve thousand feet above sea level in one of the many picturesque
_quebradas_ of the province of Ayopaya, and was apparently known
to the primitive inhabitants as a gold-bearing district, the name
Choquecamata being Aymará and signifying “breeding place of gold.”
[Illustration: QUECHISLA, MINING ESTABLISHMENT OF ARAMAYO,
FRANCKE AND COMPANY, NEAR TUPIZA.]
Near the site of the old missions which the Jesuits founded during the
colonial period in the province of Chiquitos, now forming part of the
department of Santa Cruz, rich gold mines were discovered centuries
ago. The _serrania_ of San Simon yielded handsome returns for the
labor of the Indians under the direction of their Spanish masters.
Within recent years other valuable mines have been found in this
province, which is only partially settled and contains vast stretches
of territory, the natural resources of which are practically unknown.
The gold mines of Santa Rosa, which lie along the route of the new
railway to be built from Santa Cruz to the Beni, were famous during
the past century for their abundance, having yielded two thousand five
hundred pounds’ weight of gold between the years 1847 and 1877. The
few travellers who have journeyed through this region pronounce it one
of the richest in the whole of Bolivia, and it possesses the special
advantage of having as fine a climate as any country in the world, the
four seasons being distinctly marked, though in a moderate degree.
Gold is found in the Beni and in the Territorio de Colonias, but it
will hardly be developed to any great extent until the transportation
facilities in this part of Bolivia are improved. There is plenty of
gold in the upper streams of the Acre, Madre de Dios, Orton, and the
Beni, as well as in those of the Mamoré and other tributaries of the
Guaporé or Iténez.
[Illustration: DREDGE IN CONSTRUCTION AT SAN JUAN DE ORO
MINES, TUPIZA.]
From central Bolivia southward a gold-producing region extends in a
wide strip from Cochabamba to the border of Argentina. Chuquisaca is
said to have been at one time a great mining centre, and, according to
the historian Calancha, the name itself signifies “rock of gold.” The
Inca’s subjects knew of the existence of gold in all these provinces,
and the Spaniards merely followed their guidance in searching for the
precious metal. Whenever it was possible, the Indian deceived his new
masters and kept secret his knowledge of the locality of these mines.
But though many rich _cerros_ and gold-bearing streams exist which
were never known to the Spaniards, they took possession of hundreds of
mines in all parts of the country and worked them with great profit.
In the department of Potosí, the _cerro_ of Poconota contains
one of the oldest gold mines in the country. It is situated in the
province of North Chichas, on the route from Potosí to Tupiza, and will
be on the line of the railroad which is being built from Potosí to the
Argentine border. The _cerro_ shows evidence of having been worked
by the Spaniards on a very large scale and with great success, as there
are still vestiges of elaborate and expensive apparatus, which could
only have been afforded by enormous returns from the exploitation of
the mines. The gold of Poconota shows a standard of ten grammes per
hundred pounds. The lode extends for a distance of two thousand seven
hundred feet, and is forty inches in width and nearly three hundred
feet in depth. It represents about half a million tons of ore, which
will produce, at a conservative estimate, several tons of fine gold.
In the provinces of Linares, Chayanta, and Lipez gold is found in
abundance, the Indians having exploited mines in all the principal
_serranias_ and streams of these districts. They still wash gold
from the streams of Caiza, Yura, and San Juan. In the province of
Lipez gold quartz is found in the _cerros_ of Colcha, one of the
_socavones_ being so rich that the Indians call it _abitans_,
which means “storehouse of gold.” The Yura River, which flows through
the province of Porco to join the Rio Blanco, San Juan, and other
tributaries of the Pilcomayo, contains large quantities of auriferous
gravel; and in the _cerros_ of Yura, a canton of Porco, immense
gold veins have been discovered which still await exploitation. In
Suipacha, on the border of Argentina, a few miles south of Tupiza, gold
is found in a vein forty miles long and seven feet wide, the precious
metal being plainly visible in the quartz. Portugalete, midway between
Tupiza and the famous Cerro Chorolque, is the centre of a region of
gold mines which extend in all directions. All the _quebradas_
of this district contain gold, which has always been worked in a
primitive way by the Indians, and still provides their chief means of
subsistence. The gold-mining district of Santa Catalina extends along
the course of the river San Juan from its source in the Cordillera
Real as far as the Suipacha mines, which are an extension of the Santa
Catalina veins. It includes the quartz and placer mines of Esmoraca,
Estarca, Chilco, and other rich valleys, which, like Portugalete, have
for centuries been worked by Indians. Foreign enterprise is now being
attracted to these rich deposits.
Tupiza is one of the most important mineral centres of Bolivia, all the
gold-producing districts of the province of South Chichas, of which
Tupiza is the capital, being tributary to it, while it is further
famous as the centre of the finest bismuth mines in the world. The
various companies engaged in exploiting mines of gold, silver, tin,
wolfram, antimony, lead, zinc, and bismuth, which are found in this
locality, have their headquarters in the city of Tupiza. Minerals
and precious stones, especially emeralds, are brought here for sale
by the Indians, who find them in the various mines of the province.
Portugalete, San Vicente, Lipez, Santo Domingo, Chocoma, Esmoraca, San
Juan de Oro, Tatasi, and the magnificent Chorolque are among the most
important mining centres.
The mine of San Juan de Oro is one of the very few in the province
of South Chichas which are being exploited on a large scale and with
the use of modern machinery. In 1905 a company was formed in Buenos
Aires for the purpose of developing the San Juan de Oro mine to its
full capacity; a capital of about half a million dollars in gold was
invested in the enterprise, and a powerful dredge was put in the river
as one of the initial steps of the work. Several dredges are now in
operation, and the returns are most satisfactory, showing an average of
fifty cents’ worth of gold per cubic mètre. The opinion is generally
expressed by experts in mining industries that there is a great future
in store for Bolivian gold mines, not only in this province, but
throughout the entire country. The universal prediction is that the
advent of the railroads will bring new enterprise to the development of
abandoned mines and lead to the discovery of hitherto unknown mineral
wealth.
[Illustration: PICTURESQUE VIEW OF TUPIZA.]
The mining industry of Tupiza owes a great deal to the enterprise of
one of Bolivia’s leading statesmen, Señor Don Felix Avelino Aramayo,
whose name is identified not only with the progress of the city,
but of the entire province. Many of the most valuable mines are his
property, and it is owing to his great energy and enterprise that they
have been made to yield an enormous fortune. Bolivia leads the world
in bismuth, and it is chiefly out of Señor Aramayo’s mines that the
precious mineral is taken. The firm of Aramayo, Francke and Company
bought the silver, tin, and bismuth mines of Chorolque in 1889, and
in addition to this famous mountain they also control the output of
the mines of Tasna, a mountain thirty leagues from the city of Tupiza,
which produces bismuth, tin, wolfram, and other minerals, and they
have a large establishment for the refinement of ores at Quechisla,
twenty-five leagues from Tupiza.
The magnificent _cerro_ of Chorolque, which towers above the
clouds and is visible hundreds of miles distant, where it looks like
a huge white pyramid looming above the horizon, is the centre of the
highest tin and bismuth mines in the world. The mines are worked at an
altitude of eighteen thousand feet. The different lodes of tin are of
great thickness, and their lower strata contain bismuth in chlorides
or sulphides. Bismuth is sometimes met with also in its native state,
as in Coribiri, where it is found in nuggets weighing six or seven
grammes. The deposits of bismuth in the Chorolque lode are found only
on the _cerro_ and its slopes. Rich bismuth mines were recently
discovered in the province of Inquisivi, and this mineral is found
in some quantity wherever there are large deposits of tin. The total
production of bismuth in Bolivia averages from four thousand to five
thousand metric quintals annually, and its value fluctuates between
fourteen and sixteen pounds sterling per metric quintal.
The picturesque little city of Tupiza has a population of about
three thousand inhabitants. It is situated about sixty miles north
of the Argentine boundary line, in the heart of a beautiful country,
diversified by mountain, valley, and stream, and blessed by a climate
which in summer is balmy and delightful, and even in winter is
not too cold. Along its valleys are many prosperous haciendas and
picturesque _fincas_, or country places, where various kinds of
fruits and vegetables are grown. Cattle roam over the lower mountain
slopes, and every condition is favorable for the future development
of this locality as one of the richest in pastoral and agricultural
possibilities as well as mineral wealth. Nowhere are valleys more
picturesque, the skies bluer, or the fragrance of flowers and shade of
trees more attractive to the sight than in this charming little border
city.
[Illustration: PLAZA OF TUPIZA.]
[Illustration: THE INDIAN MISSION OF SANTA CRUZ.]