Evening star., 1924-07-27

pered with white monuments, each
marking a mine.
HAVE just gone through the mills
Of the Benguet Consolidated, a
company Of American capitalists, all
residents Of the Philippine Islands.
which within eight years has taken
out in the neighborhood Of $5.ooo.0o0
in gold. The mine is now yielding
100000 a month. 1t has now quar-
ter of a million tons Of ore in sight,
the estimated value Of which Is about
IS, 100000. The mine is a closed cor
poration, most of the stock being
owned by a few American citizens
who live in Manila. 1t Is operated by
Americans, but the labor consists OF
700 Igorots and Ilocanos.
During my stay have talked with
the American miners. and watched
the naked Igorots as they dug out
the ore. 1 have gone through this
mine and it's mills with Oscar L. Ket-s
tenbach. it's superintendent. and have
learned a little Of the enormous pos
sibiiities that seem to be lying dor
mant in this part of the world. From
the ground. above which I am writ
ing, for eight years they have been
taking out ore that runs SIS and up
ward per ton. and for four years the
ore ran almost $50 per ton. All
around me I can see the abandoned
holes Of the Igorots. the former head
| hunters who have been working this
In II q m
are hundreds Of them mining here
| and there all over these mountains.
The gold is scattered, but in this Een-
guet district, Mr.. Kettenbach says,
| there is a belt sixty miles long and
| four or Ave miles in width SO highly
| mineralized that IL it were in the
United States every square foot Of 1t
| would be pegged, and the region about
would be covered with prospectors-
I asked Mr.. Kettenbach to tell me
| something of the mining as done by
the natives. He replied: "You can see
1t for yourself by going a few miles
over the hills. Their mines are scat
tered about everywhere. Many of
them follow the slides. We have
here torrential rains that start half
| a mountain sliding. and the natives
move on from year to year. They
are much like the slides at the Pan
anna Canal. AS the earth moves. the
| bedrock is laid bare, and the Igorots
go over it searching for gold. They
| look for the rich veins and follow
| them back into the hills, making tun-
nels that are often SO small that they
have to crawl in. They go in head
| first, and sometimes back out with 4
hat full Of the richest gold ore. They
| break down the rocks into bits,
crush them with a little stone roller
| working on q fiat stone, much after
the fashion OF primitive grain grind
ing, and then wash out the gold in
a pan made Of bark. Both women
and men work at the crushing and
washing. The free gold and dust that
they get they put into glass bottles
or tubes of bamboo and bring IL to
the merchants for SALE"
Many of the Igorots are now using
American mining tools. They have
| ingenious ways also of breaking the
rock by making fires on the veins.
and they mine automatically by dam
ming streams near the top Of q hill
and letting the water sluice the earth
down.. In many places there are caves
made by these Igorot workers.
| 4 4 +
DUr come with me and 60 down
into the mine and see how these
semi -savages dig out gold for the
Americans. We climb up . shaft
house and enter q small elevator with
barely enough room for three to
squeeze in and stand upright. A steel