Industrial Cuba 28 



IRON DEPOSITS OF CUBA 



Nearly all the great iron deposits of Oriente 

 lie within a few feet of the surface, and on the 

 southern slope of Sierra Maestra. In many 

 places it is only necessary to scrape the dirt from 

 the sides of the hills, remove the ore at small 

 cost and send it down to the sea by gravity. The 

 same is true of the Mayari mines on the north 

 coast, just back of Nipe Bay, where the deposits 

 need nothing but washing with cold water. The 

 economy of handling these ores has appealed to 

 large capital in the United States. 



Daiquiri and Juragun are being worked in the 

 open but need quite some quarrying to get out 

 large quantities of ore. 



Regardless of the fact that these iron ores were 

 found to be equal to those of Sweden, and supe- 

 rior, in that nature has supplied the requisite 

 amount of both nickel and manganese, thus mak- 

 ing the mines of Oriente perhaps the most valu- 

 able in the world, little attention has been paid 

 to these marvelously rich sources of mineral 

 beyond those few who are drawing dividends 

 from the industry. 



The recent purchase of the Spanish American 

 Iron Company's holdings at Daiquiri for 

 ^32,000,000.00 has called the attention of the 

 mining interests in New York to the fact that 

 millions of tons of untouched ore are still available 

 in Cuba. 



