Wolfram, an iron-manganese tungstate, is found near veins of tin and much is exported, the production being especially in the Santa Cruz district, at the northeast of Cochabamba. Some lodes contain no less than 50 per cent of tungstic acid, the ores concentrated for export running higher. About 7¹⁄₂ million pounds were exported in 1918 valued at nearly $3,708,000.
Coal. The lack of good coal is the chief fault in nature’s economy in Bolivia. Its usual cost in La Paz is $40-$50 a ton, at times $75. It is therefore used as little as possible, although some is imported. While Bolivia has been said to possess no coal at all, a lignite of fair quality has been discovered in the peninsula of Copacabana, Lake Titicaca, some of which has been used by the Guaqui-La Paz Railway to develop electric power; but not in serious fashion, experimental merely. Other seams are found near the Ayoapó station, which a company has been organized to exploit. Good samples have come from Tacora on the Arica Railway near the frontier, the coal said to be equal to that of Coronel in Chile, the seams rich and thick. If so their exploitation will immensely advance the industries of the country. Good coal is reported across the mountains from Sorata and lignite is found near Cochabamba.
On account of the enormous cost of coal, various substitutes are in use. On the plateau there is practically no wood. For heating, foreigners generally employ oil stoves, the natives nothing at all, though the mercury may range from 40° to 50° in the house on a winter’s day. In La Paz for cooking purposes a substance called taquia is employed. It looks like pecan nuts, but is the dung of llamas, which is collected by Indians on the plateau or elsewhere. It sells generally at about $4 a ton, but has lately risen to $7. It is the principal fuel used at the mines of Corocoro. In some places as at Potosí, yareta is used, a vegetable or shrub which grows in a dense mass to a height of several feet with a greater diameter. The green mass has a woody fibre, is highly resinous, and burns like peat, giving a good amount of heat. It grows at altitudes between 13,000 and 16,000 feet. Another woody shrub, a species of broom called tola, is used, with another, quenua, which like charcoal gives much heat with little ash. Extensive peat beds exist near La Paz, estimated to yield 30,000,000 tons of briquettes with a fuel value about half that of coal. The discovery and wide exploitation of coal and petroleum would be an immense boon both to industry and to the householders.
Petroleum is now believed to exist in large quantities, sufficient to solve the fuel problem. The best known fields are in the southeast where seepages occur and a belt is indicated extending northwest and southeast 150 miles from the Argentine border. Concessions covering millions of acres have been granted to American companies. The zone traverses the Provinces of Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca, and Tarija. Geological investigations indicate that a petroleum belt or basin exists along the foothills of the east side of the East Cordillera. There are indications in the Beni district a considerable distance north of La Paz, and beyond the Madidi in Colonias. A probable thickness of over-lying strata in southeast Bolivia is 160-660 feet. If so development costs will be diminished. The great difficulty is the inaccessibility of the locations. On this account few wells have yet been sunk. To pipe the oil up to the plateau would be an expensive, some say an impracticable, proposition. At present approached only by cart roads or caminos, the fields will be rendered more accessible by the railways planned from Puerto Suarez or Pacheco and from Argentina to Santa Cruz. The oils vary in quality, some having an asphalt base with 4 per cent of gasoline, up to .81 specific gravity with 40 per cent of gasoline. The heavier is in the lower sands. Along the eastern base of the Andes the petroleum is of high grade. Samples of oil from Espejos Spring, 12 leagues from Santa Cruz, indicate the quality expected north to the Madre de Dios. This has 78 per cent kerosene, 17 lubricating oil, and 4 per cent coke. From indications it is believed that gushers would come by boring to proper depth. It is said that deposits of good quality are indicated at Calacoto on the Arica Railway, a continuation of the Titicaca fields of Peru. These are obviously much more accessible but less assured.
Mining properties of various kinds may be acquired and worked to good advantage, some with a moderate outlay of capital; with larger returns, naturally, from greater expenditure for the best equipment and more extensive properties. There is work for centuries.
Industries
Other than mining industries are slightly developed, being local in character for lack of proper transportation. There is therefore opportunity for their introduction, the needs meanwhile being supplied by importation.
Weaving. The weaving industry is one for which the natives are peculiarly adapted; the Indians and the mestizos now produce with crude equipment goods of excellent quality for strength and often for color. In certain Provinces good strong cotton cloth is made which, used for sheeting, clothing, etc., lasts indefinitely. The natives make also heavy woolen stuff from llama wool, and fine soft material from vicuña, alpaca, and silk. But not half enough is woven to supply the demand, so that much coarse cotton cloth and a woolen called bayeta are imported for the use of the Indians, as well as fine goods for the white population. The llamas, estimated as numbering 500,000, are worth from $4 to $10 each; the alpacas, about half as many, are valued at $50-75 each. There are also 500,000 goats.
Rugs and skins are exported in small quantities, the animals from which these are taken growing rarer and liable to become extinct. Rugs of vicuña skin have at least doubled in price since 1906 (their export is forbidden), as is the case also with the chinchilla. Of the latter there are two varieties, the blue and the white. They are hunted by the Indians as are also the vicuñas. The former are now crossed with the viscacha, a rodent resembling a hare, the resulting animal being capable of domestication. Though the skins are inferior to genuine chinchilla they serve the purpose.
It would be a most valuable enterprise if the vicuña could be domesticated. At present the animals are wild like the guanaco, but the breeding of herds ought to be possible if the greatest care were exercised. The vicuña wool is probably the finest existing, and if the animals could be saved from destruction and their numbers increased, a highly profitable business would result. These animals, like the guanacos, wander in small groups in remote places at high altitudes, 14,000 to 16,000 feet, often difficult of access among the mountains. These with the llamas and alpacas are ruminants, the two latter domesticated and living in large herds.