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MANILA DAILY BULLETIN 



The Philippine Mining Industry 



The history of gold mining in the Philippine 

 Islands runs back through the ages until lost 

 in the mazes of tradition. 



Chinese writings of as long ago as the third 

 century report gold as the chief product of 

 Luzon. 



From Morga, a Spanish historian, we gath- 

 er that, before the coming of Magellan, the 

 Philippines carried on Commerce with China. 

 in which gold, dye-stuffs and edible birds' 

 nests were exchanged for cloth. 



In this connection it is interesting to note 

 that the leading gold-producing districts of 

 today are the same which yielded most to 

 the primitive methods of the native inhab- 

 itants in olden times. 



The Filipino miners (especially the women) 

 handle their wooden gold pans with a skill 

 unexcelled in the world. 



The Spaniards, always indefatigable pro- 

 spectors, were active in the search for the 

 Golden Fleece shortly after their occupation 

 of the Islands. After Don Juan Salcedo con- 

 quered the region known as the Province of 

 Laguna he heard stories of enormously rich 

 gold mines on the Pacific coast of Luzon and 

 at once started in search of them. After 

 great hardships he reached a place called Pa- 

 racale and verified the reports of the richness 

 of the deposits worked by the natives. 



There can be no doubt, judged by primitive 

 standards, gold mining was for centuries suc- 

 cessfully carried on by the inhabitants of the 

 Archipelago. They had no machinery, no 

 tools, no explosives and no pumps. But 

 close to the surface above water level the 

 native miner gouged out the rich stringers, 

 pounded the ore into powder and panned off 

 the free gold, just as he skilfully washed the 

 top layers of the gold-bearing sands from the 

 ancient river beds. 



The implements which the natives use a 

 washing board and a large shallow wooden 

 bowl are of great antiquity and forma prom- 

 inent feature in the household utensils of 

 all native villages in the auriferous region. 

 Boulders and fragments of quartz with visi- 



By Frank B. Ingersoll. 



ble gold occur in many alluvial deposits in 

 the Islands and it is not likely that the natives 

 would have thrown them aside without en- 

 deavoring to extract the gold. This they 

 probably did in ancient times, as they do it 

 even now, by pulverizing the quartz by hand 

 and washing it as they wash the auriferous 

 sand and gravel. 



For pulverizing the ore the natives use a 

 species of trip hammer, made by attaching a 

 heavy stone, serving as a head, to a sapling. 

 A second stone answers for an anvil. After 

 placing the quartz on the anvil the workman 

 drives down the head, the elasticity of the 

 sapling raising it again for a fresh blow. The 

 crushed quartz is ground in an arrastre, con- 

 centrated in a bated (wooden dieh) and wash- 

 ed clean in a coconut shell. In this last ope- 

 ration a soapy vegetable sap (gogo), squeez- 

 ed from a green vine, is added. This juice 

 seems to have the faculty of cleaning the 

 "greasy" gold and prevents the fine particles 

 from floating. The only feature of this pro- 

 cess which was introduced by the Spaniards 

 is the Mexican "arrastre," a block of stone 

 moved by carabao power like a mill stone on 

 a nether block. The charge of an arrastre 

 is about 250 pounds. Float gold and auri- 

 ferous pyrites' are lost in the process. It is 

 doubtful today whether the natives as a rule 

 are aware of the auriferous character of the 

 pyrites which almost always accompany the 

 gold-bearing quartz, sometimes in not incon- 

 siderable proportion. 



Before the advent of the Spaniards in the 

 Philippines the gold won by the natives found 

 its way into China through the medium of 

 Chinese traders who visited these shores in 

 their junks. The mining sections close to 

 the sea coast were also favorite raiding grounds 

 for hordes of Moro pirates, attracted 

 thither by the gold, even after the Islands 

 were under Spanish dominion. One of the 

 most interesting stories, and one which seems 

 to have some foundation in fact, is that of 

 Dona Panay, a rich native woman of Mam- 

 bulao, Camarines Norte, who sent a petition 



BKNGUET CONSOLIDATED MINING CO. MILL AT ANTAMOK. 



to the Queen of Spain asking protection against 

 the pirates and accompanying her re- 

 quest with a present of a life-size hen and a 

 setting of eggs, all of virgin gold. On the 

 hill above the portal of the famous old "Ancla 

 de Oro" tunnel in the town of Mambulao are 

 the ruins of an ancient fort erected in response 

 to the prayer of Dona Panay. 



Back in those days, according to accounts 

 more or less reliable, the town of Mambulao, 

 which lies on a sheltered deepwater harbor, 

 was the second city of the Archipelago with 

 something like 60,000 inhabitants. Today 

 the entire municipality numbers perhaps 

 3,000 souls. 



Tradition indicates that at many points in 

 the Philippine Islands the placers were origi- 

 nally very rich; and this there is no reason to 

 doubt. According to Morga the natives 

 worked them with more energy before the 

 Spanish conquest than after it. 



Spaniards coming from Mexico early settled 

 in Camarines Norte and brought with them 

 the Mexican methods of treating the ore. In 

 Morga's time (1609) the reduced royalty 

 yielded $10,000 annually, and Gemelli Carreri 

 learned from the Governor-General at Manila 

 that the product was $200,000, which is a 

 reasonable figure since such a royalty was 

 sure to be evaded in a large measure. 



Although Camarines Norte was the best 

 known gold producer there was undoubtedly 

 considerable of the precious metal turned out 

 in Benguet and Nueva Ecija on Luzon, at 

 Aroroy in Masbate, and in Misamis and 

 Surigao in Butuan province. 



One of the most romantic episodes in the 

 history of Spanish mining in the Philippines 

 was the career of the famous "Ancla de Oro", 

 a company which was organized to develop 

 the vela real at Mambulao. This company 

 planned to obtain access to the vein below 

 ground-water level by constructing a sea- 

 level drainage tunnel. The prospectus de- 

 scribed the deposite of the "Benditas Animas" 

 a claim which had been bought and sold as 

 early as 1788. The vein was said to be "two 

 palms" wide, the quartz of it being literally 

 "bedizened" with gold until it "has the ap- 

 pearance of the richest altar hanging," 

 not only the vein but "the adjacent walls 

 are also gold bearing". The document ends 

 with the stirring appeal: 



"To those who love their country the oppor- 

 tunity now presents itself to show that they 

 interest themselves in her progress and wel- 

 fare. One hundred pesos is the cost of a 

 share, payable in four installments. Even 

 if our hopes which are fundamentally so con- 

 servative should not be realized the loss of 

 one hundred pesos will bankrupt no one, so 

 we have no doubt that all will take shares in 

 the enterprise which is this day initiated. Ma- 

 nila, March 19, 1848, Isidro Sainz de Ba- 

 randa." 



The tunnel was projected to run into the 

 mountain for a distance of a thousand meters 

 but actually penetrated but 75 meters, the 

 difficulties encountered being too great to 

 overcome with the crude methods and equip- 

 ment of that period. The well preserved 

 portal of their drainage tunnel may still be 

 seen and is usually the first evidence of mining 

 to catch the eye of those who enter the bay at 

 Mambulao by steamer. 



