The farmer and mechanic., 1914-08-25

yer Mountain That Gave a Million |
Dollars Month for 800 Years
The Huanchaca Tin Mines and How
They We're DiscOvered-The Tung
stem Kings and Vanadium MOnOpO-
Isis - American Mines That Are
Making MOney-One Has Turned
Out Seven Million DOllars-A Chat
With Our Former Minister. Horace
e.. KnOwles-He Says Bolivia Will
soon BE Second Transvaal.
copyrighted, 1914, by Frank G.
Carpenter.>
The San Francisco exposition will
have a wonderful exhibit showing the
treasure vaults of the Andes. For
months Bolivia has been collecting
specimens to show her mineral re-
sources, and she will undoubtedly
have the finest mineral collection
shown at the fair. The exhibits al
ready prepared fill room seventy
feet long and twenty feet wide, and
Or. Manuel Vincente Bolivian. who is
to make the collection to San Fran
cisco, tells me that when completed
II will be three times this size. l ex-
amined the specimens already collect
ed. They embrace every sort OF
metal from bismuth and tungsten to
gold, silver, copper and tin. Bolivia
has the richest tin mines Of the
world, and it now supplies about one
fourth Of the worlds production. One
block Of tin ore to be sent to the
fair weighs 500 pounds, and Of that
10 per cent is pure tin. This is in
striking contrast to the less than 5
per cent ores Of other parts Of the
world. Another sample weighs g.
600 pounds, and it contains more
( dc % Yk
comes from the mines Of Simon
Patino, who is now the tin king OF
the world. He has an income Of
about 100000 a month from his tin
mines at Nucia, which seem mex
hauStible.
specimens Of copper These come
from various parts OF the country,
and especially from the mines of
Coracora and CarangaS, where the
ore lies in layers OF sandstone, nine
or ten feet in thickness. The copper
runs through the sandstone in grains,
and all that is necessary is to pulVer-
ize the stone and wash out the sand.
You have then the pure grains OF
copper ready to be put up in barrels
and shipped off to Europe. Other
copper specimens are ingots or char
qui, some Of which weigh several
pounds and others are pure copper in
=
sheets or plates covering many
square feet. 1 saw one such plate
that would cover dining table. The
exhibit will also have. copper water
bottles. basins and utensils made BY
the Indians.
Another mineral that will be showr
In great variety is tungsten used sc
largely in our modern electric light
ing, The tungsten comes from tht
department of Potosi, which nov
supplies the most Of this metal useC
IN the world. The owners of tn.
mines are known as the tungsteI
kings. They control the worlds out
put and fix the prices.
The exhibit will contain also man,
samples of silver and gold, lead mix
ed with silver, and copper and silve
and tin. The gold Is in coarse grain
and nuggets, washed out by the In
dams Just outside La Paz tn
Spaniards picked up a nugget tha
weighed thirty-three pounds and wa
worth $4,000. Last year a nugget a
big as the palm of mans hand wa
found near the same place.
To these specimens will be adde
some OF blocks of ore, weighing thre
or more tons. which Bolivia has bee
showing at Ghent, and the whole col
lection will form one of the fines
mineral exhibits ever seen at any ez
pOSltlOn. IL VIII give a fair idea G
the lwonderful possibilities of tn
Andes. These mountains are highl
mineraliZed throughout their Who'll
length from the Gulf of Darien to tn
Strait Of Magellan. The republic
Colombia at the north has adde
hundreds of millions of dollars wort
of silver and gold TO the wealth
the world. Ecuador and Peru HAY
produced vast sums, and also Bolivi
and Chile. They are now waShin
gold from the sands at the Strait
Magellan.
l have already written of the VOL
derful copper mines Of Cerro de Pa
co, that produced many millions
silver before the silver ore ran in
copper. Between the years of 16:
and 1924 those mines yielded MOI
than 54,000.000 pounds of pure silve
and for many years they turned out
million ounces Of silver per annuI
Indeed it is said that $50, 1000, 0,
worth Of silver has been taken fro