BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1901-07-13

Gold mining as earned on in Porto Rico
=, IS; IS. ;ereaess: asaa sRaaGst 81
The methods in vogue ale those which
prevailed among the ancient Indian races
of MEXICO and Peru before the Spanish
cOnquests. Yet there is reason to believe
that far more scientific operations took place
here under the Spanish mining engineers
in the first century of occupation and Of
fetal archives that have been preserved
show that very large sums in gold were
sent to the home treasury.
Near Corozal are the remains of immen-
Sc workings along the banks Of the rivers
where thousands upon thousands Of tons OF
dirt were moved upon well ordered plan,
with carriage toays and dumps. There we're
also systems OF shafts and tunnels, where
the work Was carried on in quartz. Re.
mains Of arastros, by means of which the
rock was crushed and the gold extracted,
are also to be found in we'll marked ruins
Within three or four miles of the town
OF CorOzal quartz vein may be distinctly
traced for many miles upon which there
are numerous signs of cuts and tunnels
Tradition says that much gold was taken
from this vein and the placers of the vici-
nity. An assay made from the rock in
question last year indicated returns of So, 90
per ton.
The Core cal and Lusuillo placer deposits
have been sources of continuous yield for
three or four hundred years, Several ounces
OF gold gathered by the peones upon these
fields are shipped regularly to the United
States mint at intervals Of every two or
three months by parties who purchase it
in San Juan.
The methods pursued by the peones are
the simplest that could be devised. They
work only in the river BEDS, where the
present channel lies, by sinking mere
well ON which they bail the water as it
Il VS. in. Of course the bed rock is rarely
reached. Where it is attained it often
Ids rich returns of coarse gold, often
nuggets of considerable size, and all OF
great fiDeness The natives often work 10
from six to ten feet Of water and they use
two pans Of lifting the pay gravel. One
OF these is by the use Of long handled
Seel hoes by which the dirt is lifted, the
ether is ~ diving and 10 ding cocoanut
shell or g'urd with the Deposit
Wien tsk'n to the surface the gravel is
washed out in u wooden pan by haud
There is besides the g,li rock lyer and
copper and galena quartz. Iron and graphite
also are f und Among these, aside from
the gold and possibly the graphite, there
is not much promise of profit. Prof Beck
with Of the smithsonian stitute, who made
some Investigations here in 1898, expressed
the opinion that graphite exists here 10 pay
irg quantities.
1t should be stated that the quartz depo
Siis show no gns Of defined tissure veins
and their true character until they are care
fully examined by experts cannot be deter
miced.
As to the placer deposits the case is differ.
ent there is a steady yield from these under
the crudes' and most ancient working process
ses, why the application Of machinery and
the modern methods 10 use in Western
America and elsewhere might not extract
profitable returns from them, no one can now
say.
The main difficulty lies in the sudden
floods which are caused BY heavy showers in
the monntsiDs and which at any time may
wash ont every vestige Of work in the chan
nels No thorough prospecting has cen
done in tie river banks where ancient chan
nels run but tit is knosn that gold is found In
the bars where water no longer down