Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-01-27
WORLDS DEEPEST GOLD MINE
Few People Realize It Is Lo.
Gated in South America.
English Company Now Operating the
MORO VeIhO In BrnxiI-Combincd
DEPTHS Of Connected shafts
Total 5,s24 Feet.

That Is a question very few people In
this country can answer correctly. Even
most mining experts would probably make
n wrong gtess-uness they had made
rather exhaustive inquiries anent the sub
iect-for it is located in a section of the
world where YOU would least expect to
find IT, In the forests which cover the |
hills that cluster about the mouth of the !
mine wild monkeys are chattcring and !
iumping from limb to limb Of the graceful !
palms which afford them food az we'll as
shelter, while among the brght-hued !
flowers exquisite orchids watt their per-
fume and display their beauty for the |
benefit of these impish progenitors OF
man. Birds Of rare plumagc fit in and
ont among the shadows and the gorgeous
red-blue-yellow macaws add their raucous
voices to the medley of sounds, while
eplendid butterflies wave their large wings
of irrdescent blue and green and gold to
enhance the riot of color in those troplc
realms
Tropic realms? Verify for the deepest
mine-gold or of any other metals To-
Gated in Brazil. It is near place bearing
the euphonious name of Villa Nova de
.ima in the State of Minas Geracs, about
$50 miles north OF Rio de Janero. 1t has
been worked, more or less Systematically.
for something over 50 years. and yet few
of MS in the United states have ever
heard OF the place, much less of the mine
which is known as the MORO Nclho and
is owned and operated by an English COM
pany.
Last year two young professors of geol-
ogy. Benjamin lie Roy Miller of Lehigh
University and Joseph r. Singewad, Jr..
of Johns Hopkins, struck out for foreign
parts and wendell their way even into the
hidden recesses of South America with
| the view of finding out something in re-
gard to the mineral resources OF the west
ern hemisphere 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 coun-
tries visited. and 1t was in Brazil That
they found this unusual and in some re-
spects unrivalled gold mine They tell
about II In an article in the December
number of the Bulletin Of the Pan Amer
, lean Union washington, d. c. from
which the following facts are taken;
The Moro Velho mine is located in the
! gold belt Of Brazil. where the Portuguese
We're first induced to settle by the dis
covery Of the yellow metal. The first gold
was discovered in 1899 near the present
city of Ouro Preto. The gold was coated
with 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
gOld-a name which was somewhat cum
bersome even for the Portuguese, so they
finally shortened 1t to just Ouro Preto,
the name by which 1t is known to-day.
Once upon a time It was about the most
important city in Brazil. gold working
surrounding it and the valuable metal
being obtained from the gravel of almost
every stream in the region. Not only the
stream gravels yielded gold. hut many
gold-hea ring quartz veins were worked.
just when the Moro Nelho mine was
first opened is not known, but 1t was be-
ing operated toward the close of the 1Stf
century, and considerable work had beer
done when the present company obtain
ed ontrol Of it in 1894. The ore body con
sists of a great vein of unusual persist
, ence and regularity that dips Into the
? earth at an angle of about IS degrees
It may be likened to a gigantic knife
blade, held vertically and thrust into thu
earth at this angle with the point still
lower than the present deepest Workings
t And It Is these workings that make TIL
l.. mine remarkable. The combined depth
i of the connected shafts give a total o
e 5.S24 feet In other words here is a gol'
d mine that Is being worked at a depth o
more than a mile below the surface of tn
y earth.
q Now he it remembered that the roc
: temperatures increase as the earth's crus
t is penetrated, in some regions the increas
r being as much as one degree F. for eac
V 70 to 80 feet increase in depth. AT thi
rate the temperature at the bottom q
l. this mine would ne over 40 degrees high
:. err than at the surface, and fried ham an
s eggs might be prepared for the miner
% without any other heating apparatus tina
a the loose rocks lying about Incidental
,. the miners would he going through tn
n frying process too. Fortunately, hOweVe
In this mine the rate Of increase of ten
. perature is only one degree for every Il
TO 100 feet, giving the rocks tempera
i ture Of only III degrees. BY forcing coo
u ed air down into the mine by means
n fans the temperature Is lowered to litt
l. less than 100 degrees Even at that it
SO rather snug, and the miners usually wea
IT only shoes. DOMINIC trousers when con
10 pany is expected. Still, the mine has pr,
t. duced a total of about $50, 600 90 worth ,
ID gold, and is being worked now at a prot
ly of something over 100000 annually.