20 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



An Aspect of the Plant and Headframe of the "Cridad" Copper Mine. 



many years, but in a casual or erratic manner, and it is impossible to pass an opinion on it from 

 the result and the conflicting reports of the prospectors who refer to the importance of the 

 field according to the success with which they have met. The fact remains that the lack of 

 transportation facilities has been a great drawback for this zone, and it will not be surprising to 

 hear of some great mining development in this region as soon as the Nuevitas-Caibarien Rail- 

 road, now being constructed, crosses this zone. ^' 



North of the belt, and more towards the central part of the Province, the immense iron 

 deposits of the Mayari type occur. The ore occurs in different forms; brown hematite is 

 very common, but the most important deposits are those ferruginous earth mantles, averaging 

 15 and 25 feet in depth and extending over many square kilometres of the surface. This ore, 

 like its Mayari kindred, is a laterite formed in place by the laterization of the serpentines; the 

 ore carries almost invariably a noticeable percentage of nickel which at times exceeds 2%, 

 is very low in phosphorus and sulphur, and it runs as high as 55% of metallic iron, and higher 

 in places. It is estimated that the tonnage exceeds 500,000,000 tons. 



Right in the centre of the Province, and around the north and eastern sections of the 

 prairie surrounding the City of Camagiiey, 9 kilometres away, there are some very important 

 chromite deposits with an estimated tonnage in sight, and to put it in graphical language, 

 above the prairie grass, of over 20,000 tons of 34% Cr2''3, that is sesquioxide of chrome, with 

 small nickel contents. Further to the northeast, and at distances varying from 3^ kilo- 

 metre to 2 kilometres, there are other deposits with over 50,000 tons of similar and higher 

 grade chrome; among these a hill about 10 metres high and some 100 metres in diameter has 

 assayed as high as 56.28% of chrome, when sampled by a party of American geologists who 

 made a survey of the Island in 1900, the analysis having been made by Mr. F. P. Dewey, of 

 Washington, D. C. This mine is only 1,600 metres from the railroad station at Minas, and Like 

 the best of the chrome deposits described above, is controlled by the Compania Nacional 

 Minera of Havana. 



These chrome deposits were visited in part by Messrs. Burch & Burchard of the Bureau 

 of Mines and the Geological Survey of the United States Government last winter, and after 

 examining the other chrome fields of Cuba, they pronounced them as the most accessible and 

 easily worked of the ones they had seen, for besides the proximity to the railroad, the roads 

 are easily improved and kept in this "sabana land," and the ore occurs in a way in which most 

 of it can be picked by hand. The writer, who, as a delegate of the Cuban Government, had the 

 good fortune to accompany the American Government engineers through their trip in Cuba, 



