Arizona republican., 1899-12-05
GUANAJUATO'S MINES.
A District in Mexico That Has Yielded
 Half a Billion Dollars.

Half a Billion Dollars.
 Who that has visited Mexico has not heard of the celebrated mines of Guam ajuato, discovered in 154S by packers going from Mexico to Zacatecas. The first mine was given the name of San Barnabe, and two years later came the discovery of the celebrated San Juan de Rayas; then in quick succession Sirena and a host of others but it was not till in the course of the eighteenth century that Guanajuato reached q surprising degree of wealth and pros perity. Then all the famous mines were at the height of their fame and produced an enormous amount of gold and silver. From 1766 to 1903 the mines produced $165, 100000 in gold and silver: from 1903 to 1887 the production was $355. 300, which makes for period of 122 years the enormous total of s52O.- 6lG,50O. These figures are taken from the records of the ministry of encour- agement, and are undoubtedly correct.
 
 worked for 21S years before 1776 and produced at least S4. COG. 900 a year dur ing that time, and that since 1887 the dlstnct of Guanajuato has produced between five and six millions annually, it will be seen that the enormous ottal of between 1,4O0 and l 300 millions has been added to the wealth of the world by this district. And there are enor- nous tracts of the great vein from which all this wealth has been taken that have hardly been we'll prospected as yet.
 The first mines worked on a large scale were Rayas and Mellada; then came Santa Anita, San Vincente, Franstos, Sirena, Valenciana, La Luz, Santa Lucia, San Jose de los Mucha- chos and many others. The first of these, San Juan de Rayas, is one of the most famous mines on the main vein and the document of Announcement is the oldest in the archives of Guana- juatO. The books of the owners show that Rayas alone paid in royalties to the king of Spain s17 1863 OOO; and it has been worked constantly for a period of 349 years. Rayas and Valenciana are also noted for their great shafts of oc- tagon shaped, the first 11.31 meters in diameter and SS2 meters deep, which cost $1,100,000; the second 922 meters diameter and 515 deep and walled in with cut stone from the top to a depth of seventy meters, which cost S1. 200, 900. Going southeast from Mellada we come to the Sirena, which is now being worked by an American company who have just completed a fine modern twenty stamp wet crushing mill with the Boss continuous process of amalga- nation. From the Sirena southeast for distance of 1000 meters the vein is capped and it has not been prospected enough to determine it's value.
 Then We come to another important group of gold mines of the Cedro and Cardones district, consisting of the Belgrade, San Jose, san Matias, San Guerra, Cardones and Union, of which the most important are the Cedro, which has produced many thousands of tons of ore, and has thousands of dol lars worth of modern machinery on it, including hoist, compressor, boilers. pumps and engines; Cardones, now worked by the American company, with a modern mill, hoist, pumps, etc. and the Union, which is being rapidly developed through a magnificent tun- nel and producing very high grade gold and silver ores. All these mines are noted for the amount of gold they have produced and are producing, as this end of the vein carries much more gold than the end on which the other famous mines are situated. Cedro and Cardones, especially, have big bodies developed, which carry a big percent age of gold. South from Cardones and on the same vein, which is here of an immense width, are Candles, Camacho. San Vincento and several others noted for their rich gold ores, and on which an American company is soon to begin erecting a gold mill of big capacity West from these is the mine Fl Santo Nino del Najal, celebrated for the rich and enormous amounts of gold ore it has produced and which has modern ten stamp mill operated by an Ameri- can company. Still further south are Villapando, San Rafael, Sata, Dolores, La Loca and a host of others. With the advent of modern machinery and adequate capital, with scientific work ing under able management. this cele- brated vein is bound to make Guana- juato more famous in the future for the gold it will produce than it has been in the past for the gold and sil- yer it has produced.-Modern Mexico.
 
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