ANNIVERSARY NUMBER 1919 



99 



GOLD DREDGE DIGGING CHANNEL THROUGH BEACH 



It remained for a. company operated by 

 American and Filipino capital seventy years 

 later to complete a drainage tunnel at exact- 

 ly the same site of the old "Ancla de Oro" 

 after three and a half years of persistent 

 work, attended by heavy expense and serious 

 obstacles. 



Activity in mining among the natives re- 

 ceived a severe setback by the prohibition im- 

 posed by the Spanish government in 1894. 

 It was shortly prior to this time that Euro- 

 pean capital (mostly British) began to make 

 mining investments in the Philippine Islands. 

 These were confined almost entirely to Cam- 

 arines Norte. One British concern planned 

 operations on a large scale. Several quartz 

 properties were opened up and considerable 

 expensive machinery brought out from Eng- 

 land. Just when the project was getting 

 fairly under way the Philippine insurrection 

 of 1896 broke out. The English engineers in 

 charge fled for their lives and the machinery 

 and mine workings alike fell into disuse and 

 decay. However, some of the machinery 

 parts are still in evidence and have recently 

 been made use of in operations. 



From the outbreak of the insurrection un- 

 til the establishment of civil government by 

 the United States in the Islands in 1901 min- 

 ing languished. Nevertheless during the 

 latter part of this period venturesome spirits 

 mostly ex-soldiers of the American army of 

 occupation were busily prospecting. Al- 

 though they made efforts to stake and record 

 claims by proceedings patterned after the 

 practice in the United States, there was no 

 legal recognition of such steps until after the 

 passage of the Philippine Bill (the Act of Con- 

 gress of July 1, 1902), which put a new min- 

 ing code into effect. 



From that point there has been a steady 

 growth in the mining industry, notwithstand- 

 ing that there has been a scarcity of capital, 

 a lack of transportation facilities, of reliable 

 labor and of competent superintendence and 

 insufficient and to some extent unfriendly 

 laws, together with a want of appreciation 

 both by the Government and by the people, 

 of the importance of the industry. 



Although prospecting and development 

 was actively going on during the first few 

 years of American occupation, the gold output 

 did not reach appreciable figures until 1907 

 when it amounted to 1*187,647. Thereafter 

 there was a steady advance in production 

 until it reached 1*3,01 1,755 in 1916. 



In 1917 it fell down to F2,816,638 while 

 for 1918 it will probably be still slightly less. 



The recent falling off in the output is large- 

 ly due to war conditions which prevented 

 continuous operation from lack of proper ma- 

 terials and supplies. Added to this there has 

 been a decided letdown in the production 

 from dredging. This has been confined en- 

 tirely to one field Paracale where thealluvial 

 deposits are being exhausted. Although at- 

 tractive fields have been proven oy testing 

 in other districts, war costs have put a pro- 

 hibition on any new installations. 



At recent gold mining is limited to three 

 districts Masbate, Benguet and Paracale. 

 In Benguet there is but a single quartz mill 

 operating, while Masbate (Aroroy) has two. 

 At Paracale five dredges are at work. 



The future of gold mining presents some 

 difficulties, at least until operation costs have 

 been cut down to something like normal. 

 Conditions which increase the co=t of opera- 

 tion often serve to change a paying mine into 

 a losing one. This is we'l illustrated by the 

 effects of the recent great war. The outlay 

 for materials, supplies, labor and in fact for 

 everything which enters into operation costs 

 has increased tremendously. In other lines 

 of industry the increased costs of operations 

 has been met by increasing the selling price 

 of the product. As the selling price of gold 

 always remains fixed no remedy is open to 

 the miner. His business which pays under 



(Concluded on page 108) 



GOLD DREDGER WORKING IN PARACALE DISTRICT. 



REPAIRING BUCKET LINE ON GOLD DREDGE 



