The Kanzas news., 1858-08-07
The Mines of Nicaraena.

a Nlcaraguan CORES spondent Of the New
York Herald, is inclined to believe that
France wants to get possession of the gold
and silver mines of Nicaragua.
No country on the face of the earth saws
the Herald correspondent contains within
the same extent of territory, richer deposits
of the precious metals. Segovia, Matagal-
pa, and Chontales. have all given proof of
mines of silver and gold-far exceeding in
net products the most famous mines of Pc
ru and Mexico. These mines are all ac-
cessible, surrounded by valuable water
privileges, in a healthy and fertile region,
and the character of the mineral formations
IS such that they may be worked extensive
y at comparatively little expense, and with
a certainty of immensely profitable results.
The gold mines yield, upon an average,
with the imperfect native machinery now
used, some S75 to the ton, which product
could easily be more than doubled by the
substitution of the proper works.
The whole expense of mining and re-
ducing the ore cannot, under any circum-
stances, exceed twenty dollars to the ton,
and by suitable management it can be done
at ten dollars to the ton. Bastannere, a
French miner of great experience, assured
me, from his own personal observation, that
the entire range, of the Chontales ridge of
mountain could be leveled with the plain,
and passed through the machinery with an
average yield, in gold and silver. of over
one hundred dollars TO the ton. The silver
mines are, however, the richest. Twenty
tons of ore, from the Mestiza mine in Chon-
tales, shipped to London for reduction, yield
ed the extraordinary product of fourteen
hundred dollars to the ton; and a company
was IN process of formation in Paris, for
the purchase and working of this mine,
with a capital of twelve millions of francs,
when the Martinez Government published
their novel mining decree, prohibiting for
eigners from entering the mineral district.
For this reason many of the mines, the
titles to which are held by Americans,
are now unworked."
We fully endorse the statements of the
Herald's correspondent in regard to the
great value of the mines in the region re-
ferred to, having ourselves spent some time
in that locality during the months of March
and April, 1856.
We have seen the common surface rock,
worked by the rude machinery of that
country, yield from $50 to $40 per tom
The yield of the Mestiza mine is also cor
rect; and we offered $500 per ton for the
very twenty tons he refers to, while it was
being shipped at San Juan, per English!
steamers for Southampton. The owner of
this ore (Bastannere) did not own the mine
from which it was taken. He contracted
with the owner "a priest) for seventy tons
of the ore, for which he paid $50 per ton,
and also paid all the expenses of mining.
NJ. Bastannere informed us that he real
lied from his contract sixty-six thousand
dollars. He was about one year taking it
out of the mine. A large portion of the
ore was shipped to Europe. The ore, after
being taken out of the mine, was put in
hide. sacks and carried on the backs of
mules to Lake Nicaragua, distance of
forty miles; from thence it was sent by
''bungoes'' and steamers to San Juan del
Norte, and from thence to England by the
British steamers. The cost of mining and
transportation alone was about $3.50 per
ton Washigtoss States.