Arizona weekly citizen., 1895-02-16
FL CALLADO.
The Richest Gold Mine in the World. Owned and Operated by the Rochs-
 childs.
s. IF. Examiner.

| years superintendent of the Ell CalladC gold mine, situated some 400 miles a.
 oove the mouth of the Orinoco river in | southeastern Venezuela and thirty miles
 inland, arrived in the city few days ago, and next week departs for the South African gold fields as an expert for the Rothschilds of London to ex- amlse into and report upon the pros-
 poets in the Transvaal.
 The story told by MT. Webber about
 the discovery of Fl Callado and its ex-
 traordinary gold output would seem
 like page from the Arabian Nights"
 If 1t had not been fortified by facts. In
 lS6o some Jamalca negroes hearing some stories about gold to be found on
 the big river on the South American coast sailed over to the Orinoco, as- ceoded 1t, and stopped near where some natives and Americans were "placering" They worked inland and soon acquired as much information about placer digg- lngs as the rest of the miners, and gra- dually, when 1t became known to them that the formation was quartz, cut their way with machetes through the mesquite and chspparsl until they found the cropplngs of ledge prolific Tn gold. It was not more than forty feet long and from eighteen to twenty -four inches wide, but was 30 rIch in spark ling gold that 1t sssayed B to the pound Much of this ore On the surface vent up into the thousands, but was worked in a rude and imperfect way. The Jamsi- cans divided the territory among them selves into numerous little companies, and when the extraordinary yield of their work went down to the traders on the river they called the source from which 1t came Fl Callado-the mys- terious. In that way the camp became known to the rest of the world.
 The uncxampled prosperity of the negroes brought trouble not only on themselves but on the authorities; the Perfect of the district finally compell- ed them to sell out their claims to a number of Corsican traders several hun dred miles on the river below. The Corsicans were men of superior intelli- gence, but knew nothing about the min ing business, and it cost them when they took charge of the mIne S200 a ton to extract and work the ore, which in California or on the Com-tock would not have cost more than S6 ton. Not wlthstandIng this and the fact that in lS6O-62 all of the machinery to work the mines came from Mexico, operated by arsstras, the rough m thod-which literally means dragged around in misery"-the mines yielded enormously and up to 1870 produced sI5, 100000, ths g, eat bulk of which was pure profit.
 The phenominal yield of the mine in 1876 attracted the attention of the Rothschilds. The great financiers sent the California expert, Hamilton Smith who from 1868 to 1876 had been super intendent of the North Bloomfield to negotiate for the purchase of the mine.
 MT. Smith offered on behalf of the s2,0O0000 for tie mine. The offer was refused, because tbe owners believed they could find anoth- er bonanza lower down. The same year the cffer was refused the mine turned out S3,OOO, 900 ID gold. Ia 1878 MT. Smith, after trip to London, came | back and offered s 100000 for it which | was again refused, and that year the | mine turned out s5,OOO, ,OOO one-half of | which was profit.
 It is sad by gentlemen familiar with |
 
 made report after that to the effect | that the mine was peterlng out, and no | further negotiations for ths sale of the l mine were attempted, but certainly MT. 1 Smith made third and successful | attempt to purchase the property in 1883 | paying for 1t a round S5,0OO,OO0. The | mine up to that time had produced s1S,- | OOO, 900. The Rothschilds incorporated | the institution at f2000, 900 and the 1 stock was placed exclusively Tn the Lon don Stock Exchange and the ParlsJ Bourse. In the intervening ten years [ the mine has produced S7 ,0OO.OO How much of that yield has been profit it is difficult to ascertain, but considering the fact that much improv cement was made on the old style of operating the | mlne and the accessibility of the ore. there necessarily accrued large profit | to the owners. It was not like delving below the eartn's surface 2,5OO or 3, GOO | feet like on the Comstock.
 In ths early days of the mine so rich |, was the ore that the owners were com- pelled to resort to methods similar to those io vogue ID the Natal diamond | fields. It IS estimated by MT. Wsbber that S33, 100000 were produced in the limited area above described, of which S7 ,OOO,0OO were stolen either by the Js- maican or native miners. They resort ad to pretty much the same tricks as those of the native diggers in the South African diamond fields. In portions of | the quartz the gold was pure virgin and | the decomposed quartz had merely to Il be broken away, and by simpie man. nf ho three hundred men employed could stow | away two or three ounces of the precious | metal about his person. In that man. ner millions were carried away and | given to the village and river traders | Tor rum, tobacco, and such other articles | as are known to be desired on the bor- ders of civilization. When the fact l became known t1e superintendent hit I u pon the expedient of erecting a search ! ing room near the mouth of the shaft | whore every miner, whether foreman or a cross cut miner, had to be | searched.
 Mining men in San Francisco say that the product of the Comstock | mines was between S70,000,000 and | SS0, ,000, ,000. In that estimate they say that the proportioo of gold and silver | was 55 per cent of the former and 45 of | the latter. But in the case or Fl Csllado | it was all gold, and in that respect ex- hibits the most remarkable contrast to any mine known in recorded history.
 The ore is perfectly pure gold ore carrying only one-hslf of one per cent sulphuret and not the slightest trace of si'ver, and considering the fact that in about toirty years it produced more than $l 100000 year with the crudest methods imaginable, it is regarded with it's ne. profits of more than half the out put, as the greatest mine the world ever saw. Had such 8 mine been dis covered in the mineral. bearing belt of