The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-23

fesrs<TST Ing the treasure Na".S '' tSszS1j Andes. For months Bolivia ns.- ueen collecting specimens to show her mineral resources, and she will undoubtedly have the finest mineral collection shown at the fair The exhibits already prepared fill room 70 feet long and 20 feet wide, and Dr. Manuel Vincente Bolivian, who is to take the collection to San Francisco, tells me that when completed it will be three times this size. l examined the specimens already collected 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 5oo pounds, and of that 70 per cent is pure tin. This is in striking contrast to the less than per cent ores of other parts of the world. Another sample weighs 2oo0 pounds, and 1t contains more than 1zo pounds of pure tin. It comes from the mines of Simon Patino, who Is now the tin king of the world. He has an Income of about S100,000 a month from his tin mines at Nucia, which seems inexhausti- ble.
 Another large exhibit consists of speci- mems 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 10 feet in thickness. The copper runs through the sandstone in grains and all that is necessary is to pulverize 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 in- gots or charqui, some of which weigh several pounds, and others are pure cop per in tile shape of sea moss. or in great sheets or plates covering many square feet. I saw one such plate that would cover a dining table. The exhibit will also have copper water bottles, basins and utensils made by the Indians.
 Another mineral that will be shown in great variety is tungsten, used so largely in our modern electric lighting. The tungsten comes from the department of Potosi, which now supplies the most Of this metal used in the world. The owners of the mines are known as the tungsten kings They control the worlds output and fix the prices.
 The exhibit will contain also many samples of silver and gold, lead mixed with silver, and copper and silver and tin. The gold is in coarse grains and nuggets, washed out by the Indians. Just outside La Paz the Spaniards picked up a mug get that weighed 33 pounds and was worth 5000. Last year nugget as big the palm of a mans hand was found near the same place.
 To these specimens will be added some blocks of ore weighing three more tons, which Bolivia has been showing at Ghent. and the whole collection will form one of the finest mineral exhibits ever seen at any exposition. It will give fair idea of the wonderful possibilities of the Andes. These mountains are highly mineralized throughout their whole length from the Gulf of Darien to the Strait of Magellan. The republic of Columbia at the north has added hundreds of millions of dollars worth of silver and gold to the wealth of the world. Ecuador and Peru have produced vast sums, and also Bolivia and Chile They are now washing gold from the sands al the Strait of Magellan.
 1 have already written of the wonder ful copper mines of Cerro de Pasco. that produced many millions in silver that pro- duced many millions in silver before the silver ore ran into copper. Between the years of 1630 and 1924 those mines yielded more than 54000,0O0 pounds of pure silver, and for many years they turned out r. 900 ounces of silver per annum Indeed, it is said that $60.000000 worth of silver has been taken from under the very ground on which the town of Cerro de Pasco now stands. l doubt not that an equal value in copper will be produced from the mines now being worked below where the sill yer lay.
 The greatest of the silver mines of Bolivia have been those of Potosi There is a mountain there that has produced more of that metal than any w mines were found about 52 years after Columbus discovered this hemisphere and from then on until the nineteenth century the average product was more than $12,000,000 a year. or S1,0O0 O0O a month, for 294 years. The total sum amounted to over three billions of dol lars. and it is estimated that almost four billions have been taken out to this day. The mountain of Potosi is now honeycombed with mines, and the silver ore is largely exhausted but the silver seems to have run into tin and a British company is working the mines for tin, with the silver as a by product. In Cerro de Pasco. the silver and gold mixed with the copper pay all the expenses of the mining and the copper is pure gain. It will probably be so with the tin of Potosi. The mines have always shown great values in tin but the ignorant miners threw the tir away. They separated it from the silver, allowing vast quantities of the cheaper metal to be washed off by ths streams. Potosi mountain has now something like 1000 abandoned silver mines scattered over it, and there arc hundreds of these that will soon bs worked for silver and tin. am told that the mountain also contains cop per.
 The Huanchaca silver mine has pro. duced more than 9,000.0o0 pounds o1 pure silver, and the mileage of its un' derground workings is said to be longer than that of any other silver mine 1T the world. The mines have recently been equipped with modern machinery and a long railroad has been built tt connect them with the smelter at An tofagasta. Those mines were discov cred in the nineteenth century by [ poor Spaniard, who for 20 years hat hunted for silver and gold and hat found none. As the story goes, he wal considered especially unlucky, and wa laughed and sneered at by all bu the Indians, to whom he was kind Tn Huanchaca mine was shown him by al Indian woman as a reward for his kind nes during her illness and as a re suit he died a rich man. More sflve was taken out after his death and tn total product has now equaled abou s125,00O,000 The mines are still yield ing. They employ altogether abou 5000 workmen, including 1000 women who are engaged in sorting the ores.
 During my stay in Cerro de Pasco