BOLIVIA: RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES
MINING
The mining industry, at present the most important in Bolivia, is
likely to continue the leader for an indefinite period, although with
easy communication and large population in the lower districts it may
ultimately have a rival in forestal and agricultural products, or in
cattle, certain to be at least a very valuable adjunct. The mineral
riches of Bolivia may equal if they do not surpass those of Peru,
though except for silver and tin they are probably less known. They
include almost every variety of the precious metals, with others not
so classed. To mention a few of these, there are gold, silver, tin,
copper, bismuth, lead, antimony, tungsten, platinum, zinc, petroleum,
with fine marbles, alabaster, malachite, opals, emeralds, jasper,
borax, salt, etc. There are thousands of known lodes, but comparatively
few are worked. The statement of the scientist, Raimondi, that the
plateau of Bolivia is a table of silver supported on columns of gold
is declared by Walle to be no exaggeration. A few of the mining belts
where some work has been carried on will be mentioned.
=Gold.= At the present time little is done in the way of gold mining,
tin and copper being more fashionable. Another reason for inactivity
in this line is that the Bolivians possess the majority of the more
favorably situated holdings, which they refuse to part with except at
prohibitive prices or possibly at all, hoping some day themselves to
be able to operate them. It is true that in the early colonial days
enormous quantities of gold and silver both were produced and exported,
although obtained by crude mining methods. It is thought that with
modern machinery excellent if not better results may yet be obtained.
In the 210 years previous to 1750 more than 12 billion dollars worth of
gold was produced in the country. There has been a falling off since
then, but one family in the last century obtained over $3,000,000 from
their property. Between 1868 and 1900 over $120,000,000 is believed
to have been produced. In many sections gold is known to exist in
abundance and with further exploration it will doubtless be discovered
in others. It is found in alluvial deposits, also in veins or lodes of
quartz, from which the deposits are the washings. Veins of antimony
which are common in Bolivia contain gold in chemical or mechanical
mixture.
There are three regions where gold is found, all of considerable
extent: the first and best known crosses the provinces of the
Department of La Paz, chiefly on the east slopes of the Cordillera
Real, continues through that of Cochabamba and runs out in Santa Cruz
towards the Rio Paraguay. In La Paz are the well known deposits of the
Tipuani River, of Chuquiaguillo, and many others. The second region
begins in the southwest corner of the country, and passing south of
Tupiza turns north through Potosí towards Santa Cruz. The third is
in the northwest part of the Republic, joining the similar section
in Peru. Although said to be the richest of all, it is practically
unexploited and unexplored.
While the opinion is held that the lack of means of communication is
all that prevents a large production of gold in Bolivia, I believe
that to Americans this is a smaller drawback than the distance of the
whole country from the United States; this objection will have less
weight in the future. Certainly the hardships of those regions and the
difficulty in reaching many of them is slight indeed in comparison
with the trials experienced by early Alaskan miners. The Tipuani,
for instance, is within a day’s horseback ride from the pretty town
of Sorata, population 8000. Chuquiaguillo, now owned by an American
company, is within easy walking distance of La Paz. Others are more
remote, most of them on the eastern slope of the Cordillera Real, to be
reached over passes of 15,000 feet or more, yet within a few days’ ride
of civilization. The single region of the Tipuani is 120 miles long.
Besides the opportunities for placer mining there are strata formed
of sand, clay, and stones, from 50 to 330 feet deep. Sometimes in
these there are veins with gold in thin flakes 98 per cent pure. Some
workings are open, others in shafts and galleries like an ordinary
mine. However, difficulty is experienced in taking machinery over the
poor trails, and also in obtaining labor. In May, 1904, a nugget was
found at Chuquiaguillo containing 47 ounces of pure gold, nearly $1000
worth. One hundred miners are employed here at 50 cents to $1.50 a
day. In the Province of Velasco, Department of Santa Cruz, is a region
considered by Walle more accessible than others, to which one would
come from the Atlantic to Corumbá on the Paraguay River or perhaps by
rail from São Paulo, and enter Bolivia across the plains. It is thought
that Bolivia may become one of the leading gold producers of the world.
=Silver.= The silver mines are better known and are now worked on a
larger scale than the gold, although 10,000 lodes are practically
abandoned or operated slightly. The suspension was not because of a
scarcity of silver but for lack of capital, means of transport, and
suitable machinery; also its lower price. A few of the largest mines
have continued to be regularly worked. With the recently higher price
of silver, greater activity has prevailed than a few years earlier. The
richest of the ores contain from 10 to 50 per cent of silver and even
80; more has from 1 to 10 per cent.
The Department of Potosí is world renowned for its silver. In the
first 40 years of colonial production more than $70,000,000 was taken
from the Cerro Potosí, a sugar loaf 16,000 feet above the sea, in which
5000 mines have been opened. Up to the present time a billion dollars,
one writer says four billion, have been realized from the silver of
Bolivia. In neighboring Provinces of the same Department, Potosí, are
many other mines, most of which now produce tin as well. The ores of
Potosí which originally contained 60 per cent or more of silver are
now poorer with more iron pyrites. The present queen of South American
silver mines, the Huanchaca-Pulacayo, east of Uyuni, consists of a
dozen groups over 8500 acres, a bed of fabulous richness. In the 28
years before 1901 it produced 4250 tons of silver. The majority of
the stock is held in France. Some years ago the Pulacayo mines were
flooded with hot water, but they have now been drained and are again
operated. On the property is a town of 10,000 people, hundreds of whom
are employed in the works, including women who first try out the ore.
In 1918 $2,622,000 worth of silver was produced.
Oruro is next to Potosí in production of silver, and in tin it stands
first. The richest silver ores, as at Huanchaca, are so exported, the
poorer are treated on the spot. Other rich mines are well known.
=Tin= mining is a more recent industry, dating from 1895. Already it
has become the leading export of the country, which now provides more
than one-third of the world’s supply. It was well known to the Spanish
colonists as much of it was mingled with the silver, but they rejected
it as rubbish, using it to fill in depressions. Large profits have
been recovered from these fillings and from the dumps. While tin is
produced in many other parts of the world, the Bolivian lodes are of
unusual extent and richness. Their production is now exceeded only by
that of the Straits Settlements. Since the development of the tin plate
industry and its use in other ways the demand for tin and the price
have enormously increased; from $350 a ton in 1898 to $900 before the
war. In 1912 tin was produced, barilla, 60 per cent pure, 37,700 tons,
worth $18,000,000; in 1918 the value of tin exported was $45,364,000.
All along the eastern part of the plateau from Lake Titicaca to the
southern boundary, tin is found in thick unbroken lodes. The three
principal districts are La Paz, Oruro, Potosí. In La Paz the best
known mines are on the slopes of the splendid mountain, Huaina Potosí
in the Cordillera Real, though many other mines are worked. Those in
the Department of Oruro are more important, producing one-third of the
output. The lodes vary in thickness from a few inches to 10, 15, or 20
feet. Rich pockets are found 30-60 feet in diameter, and veins with
stannic oxide fragments, running from 50 to 100 per cent. Cassiterite,
tin stone, or tin with stannic oxide, is frequent with 55-60 per cent
tin; this is sent to Europe as extracted. The percentage of tin in a
lode is very variable, often 6-8 per cent, sometimes 15. Veins of tin
on the Cerro Potosí penetrate the hill parallel to veins of silver;
some are united; in others tin, silver, and copper alternate or are
in union. The tin is generally in the upper part nearer the surface.
Sulphides are found at Oruro, but oxides are more frequent. All are
at an altitude of about 10,000-17,000 feet. The large Socavón Company
employs 1000 hands, has a concentrating plant, and puts out six tons
of silver and 250 tons of tin yearly. Many other mines export barilla,
some of it with 70 per cent of tin. A Bolivian, Simon J. Patiño, from
being an ordinary laborer has risen to be the Tin King, both banker and
mine owner, working his mines by modern methods and electric machinery.
His mines at Uncia are among the richest in the world, producing about
30 per cent of the Bolivian total. The Llallagua mines, the richest of
all, have still greater production.
On Huaina Potosí are placers containing with tin, gold in flakes,
bismuth, and oxide of iron; more in other locations. The Company
owning the Chlorolque Mountain and other properties, with tin as the
principal product, mines also silver, bismuth, copper, and wolfram; it
paid a 30 per cent dividend in 1917. Capital only is needed to exploit
on a much larger scale these rich and available deposits. Three hundred
to four hundred dollars a ton hardly paid the cost of production, but
with prices three times as much it is a highly profitable business.
The Guggenheims have recently purchased three tin mines located at
Caracoles on the Quimsa Cruz Range, south of Illimani, to which they
have built an automobile road 150 miles from Eucalyptus, a station on
the main line between La Paz and Oruro. The mines are at an altitude
of 16,000 to 18,000 feet, the quarters at 15,000 to 16,000. The tin
runs to 10-15 per cent. It is thought that the property will rival
the Uncia. The International Mining Company has a tin property in the
Yungas Province 52 miles from La Paz at a height of 8000 feet, a rather
more comfortable altitude.
=Copper.= Of late the copper deposits in Peru and Chile have received
more attention than those of Bolivia, but this country also has
extensive formations from Lipez at the south where white copper is
found, along the East Cordillera, past Potosí and Oruro to Corocoro
in the West, ending in the Nudo of Apolobamba. Veins occur in all the
buttresses of the Andes.
Copper is found chiefly in its native state, the deposits of Corocoro
being especially famous. The copper here occurs in powder, plates, or
nodules, in beds of reddish sandstone. One veta, or mineralized bed, is
1000 yards deep, extending several miles; another, a branch formation
above this surrounds it on the southwest and east, occupying a great
part of the Desaguadero Valley. Both formations are arseniates. One
branch 2000 yards thick extends 6 miles; in another direction a branch
runs 35 miles from Corocoro to Chacarilla, then branching south and
east. Copper generally occurs in small irregular grains with from 70
to 92 per cent copper. The native copper, the great wealth of the
mines, here ranges from microscopic grains to plates and arborescent
forms called charquis. At La Charcarilla large plates are found 3¹⁄₂
inches thick. Ores with 15-20 per cent copper are usually neglected.
As there are no good kilns, barilla is exported 80 per cent pure,
a quintal, 220 pounds, costing $3-4 for production. Except from
Corocoro the present output is insignificant. For a time these mines
were abandoned owing to the low price of copper and the difficulty of
transport. It was formerly necessary to send the barilla by carts,
mules, or llamas to the port of Arica, or else to the Desaguadero
River, to be carried in boats to Lake Titicaca and Puno, thence by rail
to Mollendo. With the great increase in the price of copper and the
opening of the Arica-La Paz Railway with a 5 mile branch to Corocoro,
these difficulties were removed and active work progressed with a
broad field for enlargement. Copper formation here is said to resemble
greatly those in Northern Michigan, such as the Copper Range, and the
Calumet and Hecla. In 1917 over 82,000,000 pounds were exported, worth
above $4,000,000.
=Lead= is found in the region of La Quiaca and some is exported by way
of Argentina. Galena, an ore of lead and silver, is widespread.
=Bismuth.= Of less used minerals bismuth may be mentioned, in the
production of which Bolivia leads the world and controls the supply. At
present, chiefly used as a drug on account of its high price, it might
be more largely employed in alloys. Bismuth ore, as carbonates, oxides,
and arsenical sulphates, is so abundant in many parts of Bolivia that
if bismuth sold at 20 cents a pound a fair profit would be realized.
With the price for years $3500 a ton, it would seem a profitable
business to engage in. Over one million pounds were exported in 1918
worth one and a half million dollars.
=Antimony= also is found in large quantities. Nearly 18,000 tons were
exported in 1916, worth approximately $5,000,000, but with high prices
and abnormal demand due to the war. Less than one per cent of the
quantity was exported in 1912. The ores are rich, often running 70 per
cent pure metal.
=Zinc= in the form of sulphides or blends is abundant, largely in
connection with silver. Such ores are sent to Europe, there to be
separated, the scarcity and almost prohibitive price of coal rendering
such a course desirable for various products, to avoid the excessive
cost of smelting; at the same time the high cost of transportation
limits the export.
=Wolfram=, an iron-manganese tungstate, is found near veins of tin and
much is exported, the production being especially in the Santa Cruz
district, at the northeast of Cochabamba. Some lodes contain no less
than 50 per cent of tungstic acid, the ores concentrated for export
running higher. About 7¹⁄₂ million pounds were exported in 1918 valued
at nearly $3,708,000.
=Coal.= The lack of good coal is the chief fault in nature’s economy
in Bolivia. Its usual cost in La Paz is $40-$50 a ton, at times $75.
It is therefore used as little as possible, although some is imported.
While Bolivia has been said to possess no coal at all, a lignite of
fair quality has been discovered in the peninsula of Copacabana, Lake
Titicaca, some of which has been used by the Guaqui-La Paz Railway
to develop electric power; but not in serious fashion, experimental
merely. Other seams are found near the Ayoapó station, which a company
has been organized to exploit. Good samples have come from Tacora on
the Arica Railway near the frontier, the coal said to be equal to that
of Coronel in Chile, the seams rich and thick. If so their exploitation
will immensely advance the industries of the country. Good coal is
reported across the mountains from Sorata and lignite is found near
Cochabamba.
On account of the enormous cost of coal, various substitutes are
in use. On the plateau there is practically no wood. For heating,
foreigners generally employ oil stoves, the natives nothing at all,
though the mercury may range from 40° to 50° in the house on a winter’s
day. In La Paz for cooking purposes a substance called _taquia_ is
employed. It looks like pecan nuts, but is the dung of llamas, which is
collected by Indians on the plateau or elsewhere. It sells generally
at about $4 a ton, but has lately risen to $7. It is the principal
fuel used at the mines of Corocoro. In some places as at Potosí,
_yareta_ is used, a vegetable or shrub which grows in a dense mass to
a height of several feet with a greater diameter. The green mass has
a woody fibre, is highly resinous, and burns like peat, giving a good
amount of heat. It grows at altitudes between 13,000 and 16,000 feet.
Another woody shrub, a species of broom called _tola_, is used, with
another, _quenua_, which like charcoal gives much heat with little ash.
Extensive peat beds exist near La Paz, estimated to yield 30,000,000
tons of briquettes with a fuel value about half that of coal. The
discovery and wide exploitation of coal and petroleum would be an
immense boon both to industry and to the householders.
=Petroleum= is now believed to exist in large quantities, sufficient
to solve the fuel problem. The best known fields are in the southeast
where seepages occur and a belt is indicated extending northwest and
southeast 150 miles from the Argentine border. Concessions covering
millions of acres have been granted to American companies. The zone
traverses the Provinces of Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca, and Tarija.
Geological investigations indicate that a petroleum belt or basin
exists along the foothills of the east side of the East Cordillera.
There are indications in the Beni district a considerable distance
north of La Paz, and beyond the Madidi in Colonias. A probable
thickness of over-lying strata in southeast Bolivia is 160-660 feet. If
so development costs will be diminished. The great difficulty is the
inaccessibility of the locations. On this account few wells have yet
been sunk. To pipe the oil up to the plateau would be an expensive,
some say an impracticable, proposition. At present approached only by
cart roads or caminos, the fields will be rendered more accessible by
the railways planned from Puerto Suarez or Pacheco and from Argentina
to Santa Cruz. The oils vary in quality, some having an asphalt base
with 4 per cent of gasoline, up to .81 specific gravity with 40 per
cent of gasoline. The heavier is in the lower sands. Along the eastern
base of the Andes the petroleum is of high grade. Samples of oil from
Espejos Spring, 12 leagues from Santa Cruz, indicate the quality
expected north to the Madre de Dios. This has 78 per cent kerosene,
17 lubricating oil, and 4 per cent coke. From indications it is
believed that gushers would come by boring to proper depth. It is said
that deposits of good quality are indicated at Calacoto on the Arica
Railway, a continuation of the Titicaca fields of Peru. These are
obviously much more accessible but less assured.
Mining properties of various kinds may be acquired and worked to good
advantage, some with a moderate outlay of capital; with larger returns,
naturally, from greater expenditure for the best equipment and more
extensive properties. There is work for centuries.
INDUSTRIES
Other than mining industries are slightly developed, being local
in character for lack of proper transportation. There is therefore
opportunity for their introduction, the needs meanwhile being supplied
by importation.
=Weaving.= The weaving industry is one for which the natives are
peculiarly adapted; the Indians and the mestizos now produce with crude
equipment goods of excellent quality for strength and often for color.
In certain Provinces good strong cotton cloth is made which, used for
sheeting, clothing, etc., lasts indefinitely. The natives make also
heavy woolen stuff from llama wool, and fine soft material from vicuña,
alpaca, and silk. But not half enough is woven to supply the demand, so
that much coarse cotton cloth and a woolen called _bayeta_ are imported
for the use of the Indians, as well as fine goods for the white
population. The llamas, estimated as numbering 500,000, are worth from
$4 to $10 each; the alpacas, about half as many, are valued at $50-75
each. There are also 500,000 goats.
=Rugs and skins= are exported in small quantities, the animals from
which these are taken growing rarer and liable to become extinct. Rugs
of _vicuña_ skin have at least doubled in price since 1906 (their
export is forbidden), as is the case also with the chinchilla. Of the
latter there are two varieties, the blue and the white. They are hunted
by the Indians as are also the vicuñas. The former are now crossed with
the _viscacha_, a rodent resembling a hare, the resulting animal being
capable of domestication. Though the skins are inferior to genuine
chinchilla they serve the purpose.
It would be a most valuable enterprise if the vicuña could be
domesticated. At present the animals are wild like the _guanaco_,
but the breeding of herds ought to be possible if the greatest care
were exercised. The _vicuña_ wool is probably the finest existing,
and if the animals could be saved from destruction and their numbers
increased, a highly profitable business would result. These animals,
like the _guanacos_, wander in small groups in remote places at high
altitudes, 14,000 to 16,000 feet, often difficult of access among the
mountains. These with the llamas and alpacas are ruminants, the two
latter domesticated and living in large herds.
The alpaca wool is much superior to that of the llama and better than
that of the sheep; if the animals were rationally bred on a large scale
the business should be extremely profitable. The animal has shorter
legs than the llama which it resembles; it is never used as a burden
bearer. The alpaca flourishes on the Titicaca Plateau and in higher,
cold and solitary mountain sections, among seed bearing grasses where
snow falls instead of rain. It requires better forage than the llama.
Pure water is an absolute essential. Their long fleece, sheared once
in two years, is always in great demand; a fleece weighs 10-15 pounds.
The alpacas, numbering probably 200,000, are tended by Indians whose
patient endurance qualify them in a measure, but who need instruction
to supervise them with more intelligent care. There are vast lands
suitable for their breeding and culture, and regions where sheep,
donkeys, goats, and cattle may be raised. None of these industries is
practised except in a small way, though land, suitable fodder, and
climate are all of the best.
=Stock raising= is carried on to a limited extent only, though
conditions for raising horned cattle are said to be ideal on the llanos
of the southeast, where vast natural prairies alternate with forests,
and many wild cattle exist. The large possibilities of this region
will undoubtedly be utilized before many years. Difficulty in reaching
markets is the great present drawback, but Argentine capitalists have
looked over the eastern lowlands and may find early means for their
exploitation. On the higher lands also are sections where the business
may be carried on to advantage. As at present only ordinary stock is
raised with no care in breeding, merely to supply local needs for meat,
there is need of imported cattle and better methods, as is the case
with sheep. Figures given for cattle are 800,000 head, of sheep 1¹⁄₂
million. Many more of the latter should be raised in some sections of
the plateau region. Mutton is more of a staple food, largely used,
dried and salted, by the Indians. Thus prepared it is called _chalona_;
dried-beef is called _charque_. The cultivation of Siberian grasses on
the plateau is suggested. Few hogs are raised, although many districts
are well adapted to them.
AGRICULTURE
In agriculture Bolivia has enormous possibilities, but at present
small production. About 5,000,000 acres are under cultivation. With
the varying altitude and climate the vegetable products are similar
to those of the preceding countries, many of these spontaneous, a few
cultivated. The latter are almost solely for internal consumption. On
the plateau grow barley, _quinua_, and potatoes, the last, when frozen
called _chuño_, are the basis of the Indians’ diet; barley is much used
for fodder; _quinua_, a very nutritious millet, easy to cultivate and
hardy, in the form of meal among the plateau Indians takes the place
of wheat and corn, which do not grow at this altitude. In the valleys
below there is plenty of corn, from which is made the Indians’ favorite
drink, _chicha_, though they will readily drink plain alcohol of poor
quality when they can get it. Wheat and rice are raised in eastern
Cochabamba, admirable coffee in the _yungas_, cacao, and coca; none in
sufficient quantity to supply the home market except coca. Some coffee
is exported but more is imported from Brazil and Peru. All needful
supplies could be provided in one or another part of the country if
population and means of transport existed.
=Other Products.= Cacao is less cultivated than coffee, though raised
in two departments. Trees are growing untended in the Rio Madidi
and Madre de Dios sections. Sugar cane is cultivated in Santa Cruz
and elsewhere, but most of it is used for making _aguardiente_, and
molasses or other syrup. More than 200,000 gallons of alcohol come
annually from Santa Cruz. Rice also is grown in this Department giving
two harvests a year. It might be cultivated in other sections. Tobacco
of excellent quality thrives in many places, but not enough is raised
for home consumption. Viticulture is slightly practised with primitive
methods. Fruits of many varieties as in Peru are raised, including
especially fine oranges. Various vegetables are grown but in these
lines the development is slight and poor.
=Coca= alone is exported among agricultural products, chiefly to Chile
and Argentina. Cultivated also in Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, the chief
centre is in the _yungas_ of La Paz. The leaf is richer in alkaloid
than the Peruvian, as I myself noted, but as yet it has not been so
much exported to Europe on account of its higher price. The plantations
are in terraces on the mountain slopes between 5000 and 7000 feet
altitude. In the _yungas_ the bushes are usually three or four feet
high, but may grow to seven or eight. A small crop may be gathered
18 months after planting, but only in four or five years are they in
full leaf. Three times a year the leaves are gathered, and with good
care the plantations will last half a century. The leaves are picked
by hand, dried, and stored in a dry place, later packed in bales and
pressed. Properly used the chewing of coca in the highlands may be a
blessing. Carried to the excess usual among the Indians it is a curse,
as it is where here used in drinks sold at the soda counter, creating
a habit as vicious as that of alcohol or opium. For the cultivation of
cotton on the lowlands there is much suitable soil and climate.
FORESTRY
Of forestal products Bolivia contains all those found in the other
sections of the Amazon basin, varieties of timber, medicinal plants,
etc.; but none at present is of commercial value for export except
quinine, manufactured from _cinchona_ bark, and rubber.
=Rubber.= The rubber industry of Bolivia is second to that of minerals.
In amount of this export the country is believed to be second in
South America to Brazil, though little has been touched of the vast
territory capable of its production. Sir Martin Conway estimated the
rubber trees of the Beni district as 50,000,000. There are four zones
of rubber producing country, one in the extreme north near the Acre
Territory of Brazil, with outlet from the port and custom house of
Cobija; second, the greater part of Colonias exporting through the
national custom house of Villa Bella, by Villa Rica at the confluence
of the Abuna and the Madeira, or by lesser ports; third, the Department
of La Paz, the rubber going out by Lake Titicaca and Mollendo; fourth,
Beni, Santa Cruz, and Cochabamba, the rubber from the north going out
by Guajará Merím or Villa Bella, that farther south by Puerto Suarez on
the Paraguay or by Yacuiba, and from the west by Oruro and Antofagasta.
The rubber of the region is chiefly that called fine _Pará_, most of
it exported through that port and being of the best quality. The latex
of the _hevea_ is the source; _sernamby_ is second quality made of the
residue of the finer quality mixed with bark. The _caucho_ from the
_castilloa elastica_ is little exploited on account of few laborers and
expensive transport. With the opening of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway in
1912 better facilities were secured, this railway having been built
a distance of 207 miles along the Brazilian shore to avoid the bad
rapids on the two rivers. The flooding of the market with Malay and
Ceylon rubber seriously affected Bolivian production and export, but
these have recently increased. With the forming of plantations in this
section, a work which an American company has undertaken, the rubber
should be better able to compete with that of Ceylon, as its superior
quality is known. The fact that the Bolivian export tax is lower than
that of Brazil gives the former an advantage.
In the Department of Cochabamba are great quantities of _maniçoba_
trees producing rubber known as _ceará_, of good quality but not the
best. It might be cultivated in hilly regions and on banks of streams
of the Yungas and other valleys in the Department of La Paz. The
lot of the _seringueiros_, the rubber workers, is bad; it may and
must be bettered if the industry is to continue. The establishing of
plantations will be a great improvement, but some amenities of life
might be made available even in the ordinary forest.
INVESTMENTS
From the description of Bolivia, it is apparent that mining presents
the most attractive field for the large capitalist. Mining experts with
less money may be tempted to investigate gold prospects or to search
for rich veins of other metals, later organizing companies for their
development or selling at a handsome profit their acquired claims, as
some persons have done hitherto. However sales are not always easily
made. Petroleum is numbered among the mining possibilities, although
the most favorably located fields may be preempted already, chiefly
by American Companies, the Braden and the Richmond Levering, in spite
of the difficulties of access and development. The petroleum procured
would find its market in Bolivia and in the neighboring countries of
the East and West Coasts where it is greatly needed. The oil with a
paraffin base is of high grade running to 45.8 Baumé.
Stock raising of various kinds would be profitable in certain
localities, and some forms of agriculture and small industries. Railway
construction, the development of electric power, the installation
of sanitary and other public works will afford many openings for
engineers.