Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-01-22

NneFe is the ueepeSt HllHe Ill the
world? That is question very few
people in this country can answer cor
rectly. Even most mining experts
would probably make wrong guess
unless they had made rather exhaust
i've inquiries anent the subject-for it
Is located in a section of the world
where you would lead expect to find
it. In the forests which cover the hills
that cluster about the mouth of the
mine wild monkeys are chattering and
jumping about from limb to limb of the
graceful palms which afford them food
as we'll as shelter, while among the
watt their perfume and display their
beauty for the benefit OF these impish
animals Birds of rare plum
age fit in and out among the
shadows and the gorgeous red-blue-
yellow macaws add their racuous
voices to the medley of sounds, while
splendid butterflies wave their large
wings of iridescent blue and green
and gold to enhance the riot of color
in these tropic realms.
Tropic realms? Verify, for the deep
est mine-gold or any other metals
located in Brazil. 1t is near place
bearing the euphonious name of Villa
Nova de Lima, in the state of Minas
Geraes, about three hundred and thirty
miles north of Rio de Janeiro. 1t has
been worked, more or less systemat-
ically, for something over eighty years,
and vet few of us in the United States
have ever heard of the place, much
less of the mine, which is known as the
MORO Velho and is owned and operat-
ed by an English company.
Last year two young professors of
geology, Benjamin LIE Roy Miller of
Lehigh University, and Joseph T.
Singewald, Jr. of John Hopkins,
struck out for foreign parts and wend-
ed their way into the hidden recesses
of South America with the view OF
finding out something in regard to the
mineral resources of the western hem
isphere. They investigated almost all
of the known mining districts of the
southern continent and brought back
with them a vast store of information
relative to the mineral wealth of the
various countries visited, and it was
in Brazil that they found this unusual
and in some respects unrlvaled gold
mine. They tell about it in an article
in the December number of the Bulle-
tin of the Pan American Union, from
which the following facts are taken:
The Moro Velho mine is located in
the gold belt of Brazil, where the
Portuguese were first induced to set
tie by the discovery Of the yellow
metal. The first gold was discovered
in 1899 near the present city of Ouro
Preto. The gold was coated with a
black substance and hence was called
"ouro preto"-black gold. The city
which they founded was long called
Villa Rica de Ouro Preto-the Rich
City of Black Coda name which was
somewhat cumbersome even for the
Portuguese, so they finally shortened
1t to just Ouro Preto, the name by
which it is known oday. Once upon a
time it was about the most important
city in Brazil, gold working surround
ing it and the valuable metal being OBJ
tanned from the gravel of almost every
stream in the region. Not only the
stream gravels yielded gold, but many
gold bearing quartz veins were
worked.
Just when the Moro Velho mine
was first nnened is not known, but it
was being operated toward the close
of the 18th century, and considerable
work had ben done when the present
company obtained control of 1t in 1884
The ore body consists Of great vein
of unusual persistence and regularity
that dips into the earth an an angle OF
about IS degrees. 1t may be likened
to a gigantic knife blade, held verti-
cally and thrust into the earth at this
angle with the point still lower than
the present deepest workings And il
lis these workings that make the mine