THE CUBA REVIEW 



23 



CUBAN MINING MATTERS 



AN OLD COPPER MINE 



The El Cobre Mine of Cuba was the subject 

 of a paper read at the last meeting of the 

 Association of German Miners and Smelters, 

 by Dr. E. Naumann, of Frankfort, who in 

 1913, paid a professional visit of three weeks' 

 duration to that property, which he appro- 

 priately describes as the oldest copper mine 

 of the New World, an ancient producer of 

 colossal riches, highly interesting from the 

 scientific geological point of view, at present 

 equipped for mining purposes with the most 

 up-to-date technical appliances, and probably 

 destined to achieve further great successes in 

 the future. The property is situated 15 km. 

 west of Santiago de Cuba. From 1839 to 

 1860, the mine produced under English 

 ownership 788,880 tons high grade ore, valued 

 at $30,000,000, the underground workings 

 having reached a depth of 1,100 ft. Since 

 then the mine has been flooded and entirely 

 abandoned, xmtil after the Spanish-American 

 War an American company obtained posses- 

 sion. _ Pumping operations for unwatermg 

 the mine were at once started on a very large 

 scale, and a railwaj^ to the pert of Santiago 

 was built. The workings have not yet been 

 pumped dry down to their old depth, and 

 meanwhile mining is restricted to the poorej- 

 ores left by the old o-miers as unpayable. 

 These average from 3.50 to 4:% Cu." The 

 output is concentrated by the Mineral 

 Separation, Limited, flotation process, which 

 is stated to give excellent results. The pro- 

 duction, totaling about 50,000 tons, con- 

 centrates and rich ores, is shipped for further 

 treatment to the United States. Whether 

 the richness of the El Cobre lode will continue 

 in depth remains, of course, to be seen. The 

 theory proclaiming the law of secondary 

 enrichment would certainly be apt to arouse 

 doubts, but, on the other hand, the geological 

 formation of the deposit and its surrovmdings, 

 the prominent features of which are fully 

 described by Dr. Naumann, appears to be in 

 some ways similar to Butte (Montana), where 

 rich ores have been found down to 3,000 ft. 

 below the surface (equal to 2,300 ft. below 

 ground water level). The El Cobre ores 

 mainly consist of copper pj^rites and copper 

 glance. 



PENNSYLVANIA STEEL COMPANY REPORT 



President Edgar C. Felton, in his remarks 

 to the stockholders, on IVIaj' 5th, concerning 

 the company's properties in Cuba, had the 

 following to say: 



■'Of the two iron mining properties in the 

 island of Cuba owned by you, neither was 

 operated to its capacity in 1913, because of 

 the decreasing demand of j-our furnaces for 

 iron ore. The older property located at 

 Daiquiri on the south coast of Cuba produced 



490,000 tons of iron ore in 1913, compared 

 with 537,000 tons in 1912. The newer 

 property located on the north coast of the 

 island, near Nipe Bay, produced 676,000 

 tons of ore in 1913, compared with 821,000 

 tons in 1912. The sum of .$184,470 was 

 expended on these two properties during 

 1913 for improvements and betterments. 

 Of this sum, $13,770 was capitahzed, laeing 

 the amount expended largely for the acquisi- 

 tion of new lands, to be used in connection 

 with mining operations. The balance of 

 this expenditure was charged currently to 

 the costs of mining." 



CUBAN ORE NOT ON MARKET 



Quoting the market prices for various iron 

 ores the Mining and Engineering Journal 

 (New York) says that "it is not necessary 

 to consider Cuban ore, since very httle of 

 that ore is sold, nearly all of it being used 

 by the steel companies which control the 

 Cuban mines. Last year some was offered 

 for sale by a company having a surplus, but 

 that was an unusual occurrence. 



THE CAMBRIA STEEL COMPANY 



"The Spanish-American Iron Company's 

 vast holdings of iron ore in Cuba passed to 

 the control of the Cambria Steel Company by 

 its recently acquired control of the Pennsjd- 

 vania Steel Company, which owns the 

 Spanish-American Company. The Maryland 

 Steel Company is now also in the control of 

 the Cambria Compam'." — Baltimore Sun. 



MORE ORE DEPOSITS PROBABLE 



Dwiglit E. Woodbridge says that "It is 

 not improbable that other large soft ore 

 bodies may be found in the interior of Cuba, 

 and that the tonnages now known to exist, 

 vast as they are, may be considerably aug- 

 mented. It may seem strange that a region 

 inhabited by white men for more than 400 

 years should still have secrets to yield; but 

 it is now less than 12 years since knowledge 

 of any of these soft ore beds reached men to 

 whom that knowledge meant anything, and 

 almost every year since then additions have 

 been made to the sum of previous informa- 

 tion on the subject. It is but 3 years since a 

 body of some 200,000,000 tons of this ore 

 was discovered behind the Aloa field, and 

 entered in the name of Chas. Pees for the 

 United States Steel Corporation. It is but 



2 years since the chief fields in Panar Del Rio 

 were first examined by an engineer competent 

 for the task." 



"Ore depths are greater in Oriente than in 

 other pro\nnces, with percentage of ii'on 2 to 



3 per cent, higher." 



