Evening star., 1954-01-10

Ordaz by air, a smaller mountain
occupies the foreground and. in per-
spective, overShadows the major
hill.
It is when one nears the hill that
its qualities become striking. Pilots
find that their magnetic compasses
swing five degrees away from north
when planes get within four or five
miles. This, of course. is due to the
iron in the hill. The iron also at
tracts lightning. so power lines have
to be specially protected.
The best way to see Cerro Bolivar
is from plane with a carefree pilot
at the controls. That way. one can
get within a few hundred feet of
the steep sides, and can see the
mining and construction operations
at close hand-even better than any,
where on the hill itself.
Perhaps the most striking thing
about Cerro Bolivar is its color.
Where the thin topsoil has been
scraped away. the body of the noun
tain lies exposed. a dark purplish
brown verging in some spots almost
on black. The common reddish
color of earth is not to be seen here.
Clones. Not Chunks
On the ground, the mountains
predominant color is a dark grey
the color of iron. A chunk of ore
bearing rock looks much like the
broken cross-section of a piece of pig
iron. And two pieces. knocked
against each other. make ''clang"
like metal rather than "clunk" like
stone.
All over Cerro Bolivar. roads have
been bulldozed out of the sides. A
railroad clingS to the cliffs, climb
ing up the side at (for a railroad) a
dizzying 3 per cent grade. Because
cars come up empty. it is possible
for the 3-unit diesel locomotives to
push the trains up to the loading
place. In fact, the problem of climb
ing the mountain is less challenging
than that of coming back down. One
trainload of ore roughly equals one
shipload: the primary function of
the locomotive is to provide braking
power.
Both roads and railroad beds are
surfaced with iron ore which. being
the native material of the mountain,
is the cheapest surface available. Be-
cause it is dense non-skid and not
subject to erosion, the iron ore sur
face is also about the best possible
for mountainside roads. But it has
one drawback: Many of the chunks
have knifelike edges. Its hell on
tires" said one company official.
United States Steel's Venezuelan
subsidiary, the Orinoco Mining Co.
is subject-like all other foreign con-
cerns-to the restrictive labor laws
of Venezuela. One law provides that
rs per cent Of all employees must be
Venezuelan citizens. This enables
Orinoco to keep its top management
and operating echelons loaded with
Americans, of course But it forces
the company to train VeneZuelans
for skilled labor jobs usually per-
formed in the tropics by Americans.
For example, one of the three big
power shovelS on the mountain is
operated by an Indian from the
nearby jungle who, three years ago,
would have had hard time figuring
out the function of a wheel. This
reporter about month ago, stood
OH cliff few dozen feet above
digging operations and watched the
Indian shovel operator load trucks.
The Indian seemed to be doing
quite well, Spilling little from the
shovel and filling trucks with dis
patch. A company engineer agreed
that for a man who had been in
training only a few months. he was
quite proficient operator.
There is no doubt that the COM
pany would prefer American help,
however. Language is not much of
barrier. but Americans are more
energetic. And because of huge
fringe benefits that must be paid
Venezuelan labor, there is little diff
ference between the pay of an
American and the total emoluments
OF Venezuelan doing the same job.
Royalties Are Low
United States Steel does not own
the mountain it mines. Cerro Boil
var-like all mineral deposits in
Venezuela-belongs to the govern
ment, and royalties are paid on the
tonnage extracted. There are no
precise data available on the per-
centages involved in royalty pay
ments. Bethlehem does not want
United States Steel to know what it
pays and vice versa. and the Vene-
zuelan government respects the
wishes of the two companies. But it
is known that the royalties and taxes
paid in the iron country are far be-
low those paid by the foreign COM
panies taking oil out of the rich
fields at Lake Maracaibo.
The Governments total take on
Oil is IN the neighborhood of SIS per
cent OF the gross. It probably is
closer to 10 or Is per cent for iron.
The lower royalty payments are an
incentive toward development of a
still-new industry which this year
will produce something less than S
million tons of ore in the whole
country of Venezuela.
Even this seemingly small out
put-less than S per cent that of
the United States deposits-stands
to make Venezuela the seventh big
gest producer of iron ore in the
world in 1854, and almost certainly
the sixth biggest (after the United
States Russia France Srneden and