16 THECUBAREVIEW 



CUBA'S GREAT MINERAL WEALTH 



IRON ORES BEST KNOWN NO ORE SMELTED ON THE ISLAND 



COPPER DEPOSITS 



A very interesting article by H. H. Nicholson, a mining engineer of Lincoln, Nebraska, 

 appeared in Mining Science on the subject of the great mineral wealth of Cuba. 



The author gives a very full account of the resources in minerals of the island and 

 deals with the present state of their development. So few people realize the vast 

 mineral wealth of Cuba, hitherto neglected because of the easier exploitation of its 

 agricultural and timber resources, that we reproduce portions of the article dealing with 

 the iron and copper industries alone. After a brief historical account, which gives a 

 very plausible explanation for past neglect of the splendid opportunities offered, the 

 author continues : 



"In Cuba, as in Alaska, every mountain stream cuts out its rocky gulches and con- 

 centrates their contents in their sands and gravels. Whatever the causes for it are, 

 the fact remains that Cuba possesses a wealth of mineral resources that to-day remains 

 practically untouched. 



"The ores of iron are at present the best known. They are of good grade, widely 

 distributed, easily mined and shipped. Though known in a general way for about 400 

 years, it is only within the last 30 years that they have been commercially mined. 



"Under the most liberal charter several American companies became interested in 1884 

 and later in the development of the rich iron deposits in Oriente, near Santiago. The 

 Juragua Co., with mines about 16 miles east of Santiago, and the Spanish-American 

 Iron Co., with extensive mines at Daiquiri, 20 miles east of Santiago and at Myari, on 

 the north coast near Nipe Bay, are the principal iron companies in active production. 

 The investments of these companies represent many millions of dollars, and their plants 

 are among the most extensive and up-to-date in the world. Their ores are quarried 

 rather than mined, in the ordinary sense, and are handled from mine to steamer in the 

 most economical manner. Steam shovels and gravity do the work. No ore is smelted 

 on the island, but all is shipped to the United States. This means that mining costs 

 and shipping charges are low and that ores are of a high quality. 



"The ores of the south coast are mostly magnetic and hard hematites in massive form 

 enclosed in porphyry, while those on the east and north coast, at Moa and about Nipe 

 Bay, are in general limonites. They occur in blanket formation, carrying little or no 

 overburden, and overlie massive serpentine and related rocks. In some cases the surface 

 deposits are in nodular or spherical form, interspersed with scraps and masses like 

 broken furnace slag. 



"These ores, besides a high iron content, sometimes carry a small per cent of nickel 

 or chromium, and are, as a rule, below the Bessemer limit in sulphur and phosphorus. 

 Shipments from these mines in 11)09 amounted to about 1,000,000 tons. Apparently the 

 supply is practically inexhaustible, as immense beds of ore of a similar character have 

 been discovered near Moa Bay and in the province of Camaguey, in the Cubitas Moun- 

 tains, near the north coast. 



"Iron ores of a good grade are known to exist in other parts of the island, notably 

 through the Sierra Maestro Mountains, on the south coast, near Trinidad and through 

 Santa Clara and in the mountainous region of Pinar del Rio in the extreme west. 



"Although at present the iron minerals are the ones best known, most thoroughly 

 prospected and most extensively developed, they really represent but a small fraction 

 of the mineral resources of the country. Copper has been mined at Cobre, near Santiago, 

 for nearly 400 years. The Cobre mines were discovered and, in a manner, opened in 

 1514. Systematic mining, though, was not begun until 1.530, since which time these 

 mines have been worked, with varying fortunes, until to-day. 



"The surface and oxidized ores were phenominally rich, and even the sulphides of the 

 deepest workings have had a shipping grade. This mine has had a checkered history. 

 Tradition has it that copper was produced here even before the coming of the Spaniards. 

 This idea is based on the fact that copper implements and images found in the ancient 

 mounds of Florida have been identified as having been made from Cobre copper. 



"Be that as it may, historical evidence points to the fact that the rich deposits at 

 Cobre were known to the Spaniards as early as the founding of the city of Santiago, 

 about 1514. One of the earliest official reports states, among other interesting facts, 

 that 'out of the veins of the nearby mountains comes copper at the rate of 55 to 60 

 pounds a hundred of earth mined.' For some three centuries copper was produced from 

 these mines in a desultory manner. About 1S30 an English company came into possession 

 of the property, and for a number of years operated it in a systematic manner. They 



