El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-04-06
ANCIENT TEPEC MINES ARE STILL
RICH IN SILVER, SAYS W. {. BELL
Mines Are old workings.

after the present troubles in Mexico are
at en- end.
Mines Are Old workings.
The mines in which 1 am interested
infconjunction with some other FL Paso
men are located near Ahuacat1an in the
southern part of Tepec- There a number
of properties in this district which are
still held by prominent Mexicans for
purposes of Speculation. They have
not been worked in the last hundred
years but the Mexicans in control want
foreign capitalists to pay fancy prices.
And in my opinion, to tell the honest
truth, some of those old mines would
be worth under modern conditions the
fancy prices asked For as a general
thing Mexicans do not understand the
10th century processes of mining. In the
old days before modern concentrators
; and cyanides the Mexleans and the
Spaniards were among the best miners
in the world but they lose their way
when it comes to the big mills and TO
running things on the gigantic scale
made necessary by the latter day meth
DDS Of mining.
aThe mines of the Santa Fe district
are Of silver. One of the best among
those not being worked-in fact there
! is not mine in the district which is
being worked-is the Espeniso. This old
mine was operated by the viceroys of
/ Spain prior to the revolution Of 1910
and with crude methods then in exist
I ence it is on record that over $35, 000. 900
/ Gu. s. currency have been taken out.
The vein is eight feet in width and the
Spanish miners worked it for over 1000
feet, down to the water level. One shaft
/ in. it is 600 feet in depth. Two cross
cut tunnels We're started by the Span
iards for the purpose of cutting the
vein 400 feet below their lower work
inc Of ic IL
the revolutionists driving out the
Spanish miners and never a pick has
! been struck, never spade turned since
that time.
Get Silver from Pillars.
THE values of the silver taken out
can best be judged by the samples of
the ores which can still be found in the
old pillars. In the Santa Fe district, as
in some other antigua mining districts
of Mexico, there are certain families
which make their living by Hunting
through the old workings and robbing'
! the pillars and other portions of the
workings. In fact certain families be-
come expert at this kind of a thing.
1t becomes almost family business
or profession-almost family trust
you might say.
Become Experts.
They never work very hard at this
business but they usually work hard
enough to get all the mescal and the
cigarets needed And sometimes depos-
its of real valuation are discovered by
these natives who are called gam
bOscinos or buscomos. Busco is the
Spanish for hunt and it is only fair
to these gamboscinos or buscomos to
say that by following this business from
generation TO generation and for many
years they become the finest experts In
the world when il is a mere matter of
an examination with the eye of the
metals Of their own districts.
The native buscomos will prowI
around the mountains and the mines fer
hours and even days. Then he will bring
back with him the samples of the ores
which to his practiced eye appear to be
the richest After rubbing those sam
pies between two rocks, in that way
pulverizing the metals the native will
put his samples into a horn spoon A
horn spoon I may as well explain Is a
kind of an elongated spoon made from
a cows horn BY putting in a little wa
ter they can concentrate the samples Sc
cured and can get pretty good idea of
the richness of the samples found and
determine the percentages of gold sill
yer, copper or lead.
Besides the Espinosa mine which has
produced s35,000.0 900 worth of ores an
other antigua Spanish mine which
proved Of special interest to me was the
Bagres. The two mines are located about
five miles apart, the Bagres mine be-
ing located on the south side Of the
Santa Fe arroyo. The principal work
ings here are upon three veins, one vein
being two feet in width, one vein being
three feet in width, and the third vein
Being IS inches in width. All of these
veins produce high grade silver 1 saw
the native gamboscinos bringing out
samples which averaged from five to
20 kilos in silver and from one-haIf an
ounce to two ounces of gold. A kilo of
silver is approximately 80 ounces Troy.