18 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



CAMAGUEY DEPOSIT OF BROWN IRON ORES 



WiLLiARD L. CuMMiNGS (Geologist, Bethlehem Steel Co.) and Benjamin L. Miller (Professor of 

 Geology, Lehigh University) in the Cleveland»(0.) Iron Trade Review 



The Camaguey brown iron ore deposit 

 covers the top of San Felipe hill, the near- 

 est point of which lies 14 miles northwest 

 of the city of Camaguey. While there are 

 several low flat-topped hills in the vicinity 

 covered with a more or less continuous 

 mantle of brown iron ore, the deposit of 

 Felipe hill is the only one of any size and 

 importance, and the naine "San Felipe Dis- 

 trict" is proposed for the region. 



The deposit extends in a northwest- 

 southeast direction for a distance of about 

 ten miles, with an average width of five 

 miles. The location is shown in Fig. 1, 

 a sketch-map of the eastern part of Cuba. 

 Fig. 2 is a map of the San Felipe district. 



Practically every one of the mesas in the 

 San Felipe district contains a mantle of 

 brown ore, and principally at an elevation 

 of from 400 to 500 feet above sea level. 

 On the smaller hills, however, erosion has 

 proceeded so far that the ore is nearly all 

 removed. In different parts of the plain, 

 which has an elevation of from 150 to 250 

 feet above sea level, there is some ore 

 and some mining denouncements have 

 been made, but the ore on these flats, or 

 sabanas, is very shallow, and outcrops of 

 serpentine appear at frequent intervals. 



On the San Felipe hill there is a great 

 deal of hard ore similar to that on the 



beach at Moa, and in places the boulders 

 are of enormous size. Over other areas, 

 especially the wooded ones, there is no 

 float ore, and the presence of the ore de- 

 posit is only revealed by digging through 

 the soil and vegetable matter, which is gen- 

 erally only a few inches deep. 



The greatest difference between San 

 Fehpe and Moa and Mayari is the coarse 

 nature of the disintegrated capping at the 

 first-mentioned locahty and the frequent 

 presence of hard ore below. Thus, at San 

 Felipe, some pits can be dug 30 feet with- 

 out the use of dynamite, while others can 

 be dug only a few feet before the hard 

 layer, necessitating blasting, is encoun- 

 tered, and in still other areas ore is found 

 immediately under the grass roots. In no 

 case has it been found possible to explore 

 with hand augers, as was done at Aloa and 

 Mayari, as the auger is so apt to hit boul- 

 ders of hard ore, that are frequently of 

 considerable size. 



A typical analysis of San Felipe ores is, 

 in average of 10 samples : Fe, 45.18 ; Si02, 

 6.75; AI2O3, 12.3; Mn, 0.56; Cr, 1.7; Ni, 

 0.53; P, 0.1; S, 0.063; CaO,MgO, 2; loss 

 on ignition, 12 per cent. 



A comparison of the average analysis 

 given above with the following average 

 anah'sis of three samples selected at ran- 



Sketch-map of the San Felipe Iron Ore District, Camaguey, Cuba. (Iron Trade Review). 



