Panama to Patagonia

by Charles M. Pepper

CHAPTER XX

THE MEXICO OF SOUTH AMERICA

Depression and Revival of Mining Industry—Bolivia’s Tin Deposits and Their Extension—Oruro, Chorolque, Potosi, and La Paz Districts—Silver Regions—Potosi’s Output through the Centuries—Pulacayo’s Record—Mines at Great Heights—Trend of the Copper Veins—Corocoro, a Lake Superior Region—Three Gold Districts—Bismuth and Borax—Bituminous Coal and Petroleum—Tropical Agriculture—Some Rubber Forests Left—Coffee for Export—Coca and Quinine—Cotton.

BOLIVIA, in the character, variety, and extent of her resources, is the Mexico of South America. Her mines yielded the precious metals for hundreds of years. She was the casket of gems held in pawn by the Spanish Crown. She poured the riches of prodigal mother Nature into the lap of the mother country.

Nor was the largess limited to the colonial epoch. The prosperity continued until world conditions, the fall in the price of silver, the depression in the baser metals, bore with crushing weight on an industry which after centuries of ceaseless exploitation must show exhaustion. Lack of transportation facilities discouraged capital from meeting the stress of lowered prices by replacing primitive processes with modern methods. Mining was not abandoned, but it did not advance. Fresh discoveries did not follow exhausted ore beds.

But the dawn of the mining revival came. It was heralded by the basis of all modern industrial development,—railways. The country will have means of communication. The impulse will be given to working old mines and developing new ones, and the progress for the next quarter of a century promises to parallel that made by Mexico during the last twenty-five years. Much of it will be due to the policy initiated by General José M. Pando, and followed by his successor, President Ismael Montes. The understanding of the prospect will best be had after knowledge of what constitutes the mineral resources of the country. From 83 to 85 per cent of the exports are of this class.

Bolivia has not only the precious metals. She also possesses tin. So few countries in the world produce tin, and the article maintains so steady a price, that it is surprising enterprising capital has not made greater efforts to exploit the Bolivian deposits. This mineral is found all through the eastern fold of the plain lying between the Oriental and the Occidental Cordilleras. It extends from the vicinity of Lake Titicaca to the southern boundary of the Republic. The richest and most productive zone of this region is between south latitude 17° and 19°, but the tin fields cover an extent of 300 miles. The most common formation is of slate and gravel, tin being found in the igneous rocks. The best-known districts are Milluni; Huayna-Potosi, where the mines are worked more than 17,000 feet above sea-level; Colquiri, where the early Spaniards found tin concentrates, and other sections of the Province of Inquisivi; Oruro; parts of the Province of Poöpo, and the districts of Chayanta, Potosi, Porco, Tacna, Chorolque, Chocaya, and Cotagaita. The three latter deposits are in the vicinity of Uyuni.

The productive districts are known as La Paz, in the north; Oruro, in the centre; Chorolque, in the south; and Potosi, in the east. Some of the deposits are superficial and thinly spread out over a great extent, while others have been followed to a depth of 1,000 feet and are still continued. The thickness of the veins varies from a few inches up to 10 feet. In some of the mines the mineral is found comparatively pure, containing 40 or 50 per cent and even as high as 65 per cent of the metal. In others the oxide of tin nearly pure is encountered in the form of crystal grains and nodules of a kind of sticky iron sand.

In the northern district between the Illimani and Sorata, and not more than 20 miles from La Paz, is the beginning of the tin deposits of Huayna-Potosi. The tin is found in combination with bismuth, iron pyrites, silver, galena, and even with gold. Milluni is a few miles north of Huayna-Potosi. It has a group of parallel lodes, running east, north, and south, which are composed of quartz impregnated with fine earth, more or less crystallized, and oxides of iron pyrites. There are also veins, running in a westerly direction, which have galena, blends, and carbonates of iron. The greater part of the workings have been at slight depths where the mineral is easily extracted. Chocaltaga, which is within 12 miles of La Paz, is operated under similar conditions. It forms part of the single deposit of Huayna-Potosi and Milluni. The ore extracted from this group is exported by way of Lake Titicaca and Mollendo.

The Oruro region is the most important, as appears from the comparisons of production. The output of the different districts for a series of years is shown in the following table, in terms of metric quintals of 220.46 pounds: