Industrial and commercial South America

Mining

The mining industry, at present the most important in Bolivia, is likely to continue the leader for an indefinite period, although with easy communication and large population in the lower districts it may ultimately have a rival in forestal and agricultural products, or in cattle, certain to be at least a very valuable adjunct. The mineral riches of Bolivia may equal if they do not surpass those of Peru, though except for silver and tin they are probably less known. They include almost every variety of the precious metals, with others not so classed. To mention a few of these, there are gold, silver, tin, copper, bismuth, lead, antimony, tungsten, platinum, zinc, petroleum, with fine marbles, alabaster, malachite, opals, emeralds, jasper, borax, salt, etc. There are thousands of known lodes, but comparatively few are worked. The statement of the scientist, Raimondi, that the plateau of Bolivia is a table of silver supported on columns of gold is declared by Walle to be no exaggeration. A few of the mining belts where some work has been carried on will be mentioned.

Gold. At the present time little is done in the way of gold mining, tin and copper being more fashionable. Another reason for inactivity in this line is that the Bolivians possess the majority of the more favorably situated holdings, which they refuse to part with except at prohibitive prices or possibly at all, hoping some day themselves to be able to operate them. It is true that in the early colonial days enormous quantities of gold and silver both were produced and exported, although obtained by crude mining methods. It is thought that with modern machinery excellent if not better results may yet be obtained. In the 210 years previous to 1750 more than 12 billion dollars worth of gold was produced in the country. There has been a falling off since then, but one family in the last century obtained over $3,000,000 from their property. Between 1868 and 1900 over $120,000,000 is believed to have been produced. In many sections gold is known to exist in abundance and with further exploration it will doubtless be discovered in others. It is found in alluvial deposits, also in veins or lodes of quartz, from which the deposits are the washings. Veins of antimony which are common in Bolivia contain gold in chemical or mechanical mixture.

There are three regions where gold is found, all of considerable extent: the first and best known crosses the provinces of the Department of La Paz, chiefly on the east slopes of the Cordillera Real, continues through that of Cochabamba and runs out in Santa Cruz towards the Rio Paraguay. In La Paz are the well known deposits of the Tipuani River, of Chuquiaguillo, and many others. The second region begins in the southwest corner of the country, and passing south of Tupiza turns north through Potosí towards Santa Cruz. The third is in the northwest part of the Republic, joining the similar section in Peru. Although said to be the richest of all, it is practically unexploited and unexplored.

While the opinion is held that the lack of means of communication is all that prevents a large production of gold in Bolivia, I believe that to Americans this is a smaller drawback than the distance of the whole country from the United States; this objection will have less weight in the future. Certainly the hardships of those regions and the difficulty in reaching many of them is slight indeed in comparison with the trials experienced by early Alaskan miners. The Tipuani, for instance, is within a day’s horseback ride from the pretty town of Sorata, population 8000. Chuquiaguillo, now owned by an American company, is within easy walking distance of La Paz. Others are more remote, most of them on the eastern slope of the Cordillera Real, to be reached over passes of 15,000 feet or more, yet within a few days’ ride of civilization. The single region of the Tipuani is 120 miles long.

Besides the opportunities for placer mining there are strata formed of sand, clay, and stones, from 50 to 330 feet deep. Sometimes in these there are veins with gold in thin flakes 98 per cent pure. Some workings are open, others in shafts and galleries like an ordinary mine. However, difficulty is experienced in taking machinery over the poor trails, and also in obtaining labor. In May, 1904, a nugget was found at Chuquiaguillo containing 47 ounces of pure gold, nearly $1000 worth. One hundred miners are employed here at 50 cents to $1.50 a day. In the Province of Velasco, Department of Santa Cruz, is a region considered by Walle more accessible than others, to which one would come from the Atlantic to Corumbá on the Paraguay River or perhaps by rail from São Paulo, and enter Bolivia across the plains. It is thought that Bolivia may become one of the leading gold producers of the world.

Silver. The silver mines are better known and are now worked on a larger scale than the gold, although 10,000 lodes are practically abandoned or operated slightly. The suspension was not because of a scarcity of silver but for lack of capital, means of transport, and suitable machinery; also its lower price. A few of the largest mines have continued to be regularly worked. With the recently higher price of silver, greater activity has prevailed than a few years earlier. The richest of the ores contain from 10 to 50 per cent of silver and even 80; more has from 1 to 10 per cent.

The Department of Potosí is world renowned for its silver. In the first 40 years of colonial production more than $70,000,000 was taken from the Cerro Potosí, a sugar loaf 16,000 feet above the sea, in which 5000 mines have been opened. Up to the present time a billion dollars, one writer says four billion, have been realized from the silver of Bolivia. In neighboring Provinces of the same Department, Potosí, are many other mines, most of which now produce tin as well. The ores of Potosí which originally contained 60 per cent or more of silver are now poorer with more iron pyrites. The present queen of South American silver mines, the Huanchaca-Pulacayo, east of Uyuni, consists of a dozen groups over 8500 acres, a bed of fabulous richness. In the 28 years before 1901 it produced 4250 tons of silver. The majority of the stock is held in France. Some years ago the Pulacayo mines were flooded with hot water, but they have now been drained and are again operated. On the property is a town of 10,000 people, hundreds of whom are employed in the works, including women who first try out the ore. In 1918 $2,622,000 worth of silver was produced.

Oruro is next to Potosí in production of silver, and in tin it stands first. The richest silver ores, as at Huanchaca, are so exported, the poorer are treated on the spot. Other rich mines are well known.

Tin mining is a more recent industry, dating from 1895. Already it has become the leading export of the country, which now provides more than one-third of the world’s supply. It was well known to the Spanish colonists as much of it was mingled with the silver, but they rejected it as rubbish, using it to fill in depressions. Large profits have been recovered from these fillings and from the dumps. While tin is produced in many other parts of the world, the Bolivian lodes are of unusual extent and richness. Their production is now exceeded only by that of the Straits Settlements. Since the development of the tin plate industry and its use in other ways the demand for tin and the price have enormously increased; from $350 a ton in 1898 to $900 before the war. In 1912 tin was produced, barilla, 60 per cent pure, 37,700 tons, worth $18,000,000; in 1918 the value of tin exported was $45,364,000.

All along the eastern part of the plateau from Lake Titicaca to the southern boundary, tin is found in thick unbroken lodes. The three principal districts are La Paz, Oruro, Potosí. In La Paz the best known mines are on the slopes of the splendid mountain, Huaina Potosí in the Cordillera Real, though many other mines are worked. Those in the Department of Oruro are more important, producing one-third of the output. The lodes vary in thickness from a few inches to 10, 15, or 20 feet. Rich pockets are found 30-60 feet in diameter, and veins with stannic oxide fragments, running from 50 to 100 per cent. Cassiterite, tin stone, or tin with stannic oxide, is frequent with 55-60 per cent tin; this is sent to Europe as extracted. The percentage of tin in a lode is very variable, often 6-8 per cent, sometimes 15. Veins of tin on the Cerro Potosí penetrate the hill parallel to veins of silver; some are united; in others tin, silver, and copper alternate or are in union. The tin is generally in the upper part nearer the surface. Sulphides are found at Oruro, but oxides are more frequent. All are at an altitude of about 10,000-17,000 feet. The large Socavón Company employs 1000 hands, has a concentrating plant, and puts out six tons of silver and 250 tons of tin yearly. Many other mines export barilla, some of it with 70 per cent of tin. A Bolivian, Simon J. Patiño, from being an ordinary laborer has risen to be the Tin King, both banker and mine owner, working his mines by modern methods and electric machinery. His mines at Uncia are among the richest in the world, producing about 30 per cent of the Bolivian total. The Llallagua mines, the richest of all, have still greater production.

On Huaina Potosí are placers containing with tin, gold in flakes, bismuth, and oxide of iron; more in other locations. The Company owning the Chlorolque Mountain and other properties, with tin as the principal product, mines also silver, bismuth, copper, and wolfram; it paid a 30 per cent dividend in 1917. Capital only is needed to exploit on a much larger scale these rich and available deposits. Three hundred to four hundred dollars a ton hardly paid the cost of production, but with prices three times as much it is a highly profitable business. The Guggenheims have recently purchased three tin mines located at Caracoles on the Quimsa Cruz Range, south of Illimani, to which they have built an automobile road 150 miles from Eucalyptus, a station on the main line between La Paz and Oruro. The mines are at an altitude of 16,000 to 18,000 feet, the quarters at 15,000 to 16,000. The tin runs to 10-15 per cent. It is thought that the property will rival the Uncia. The International Mining Company has a tin property in the Yungas Province 52 miles from La Paz at a height of 8000 feet, a rather more comfortable altitude.

Copper. Of late the copper deposits in Peru and Chile have received more attention than those of Bolivia, but this country also has extensive formations from Lipez at the south where white copper is found, along the East Cordillera, past Potosí and Oruro to Corocoro in the West, ending in the Nudo of Apolobamba. Veins occur in all the buttresses of the Andes.

Copper is found chiefly in its native state, the deposits of Corocoro being especially famous. The copper here occurs in powder, plates, or nodules, in beds of reddish sandstone. One veta, or mineralized bed, is 1000 yards deep, extending several miles; another, a branch formation above this surrounds it on the southwest and east, occupying a great part of the Desaguadero Valley. Both formations are arseniates. One branch 2000 yards thick extends 6 miles; in another direction a branch runs 35 miles from Corocoro to Chacarilla, then branching south and east. Copper generally occurs in small irregular grains with from 70 to 92 per cent copper. The native copper, the great wealth of the mines, here ranges from microscopic grains to plates and arborescent forms called charquis. At La Charcarilla large plates are found 3¹⁄₂ inches thick. Ores with 15-20 per cent copper are usually neglected. As there are no good kilns, barilla is exported 80 per cent pure, a quintal, 220 pounds, costing $3-4 for production. Except from Corocoro the present output is insignificant. For a time these mines were abandoned owing to the low price of copper and the difficulty of transport. It was formerly necessary to send the barilla by carts, mules, or llamas to the port of Arica, or else to the Desaguadero River, to be carried in boats to Lake Titicaca and Puno, thence by rail to Mollendo. With the great increase in the price of copper and the opening of the Arica-La Paz Railway with a 5 mile branch to Corocoro, these difficulties were removed and active work progressed with a broad field for enlargement. Copper formation here is said to resemble greatly those in Northern Michigan, such as the Copper Range, and the Calumet and Hecla. In 1917 over 82,000,000 pounds were exported, worth above $4,000,000.

Lead is found in the region of La Quiaca and some is exported by way of Argentina. Galena, an ore of lead and silver, is widespread.

Bismuth. Of less used minerals bismuth may be mentioned, in the production of which Bolivia leads the world and controls the supply. At present, chiefly used as a drug on account of its high price, it might be more largely employed in alloys. Bismuth ore, as carbonates, oxides, and arsenical sulphates, is so abundant in many parts of Bolivia that if bismuth sold at 20 cents a pound a fair profit would be realized. With the price for years $3500 a ton, it would seem a profitable business to engage in. Over one million pounds were exported in 1918 worth one and a half million dollars.

Antimony also is found in large quantities. Nearly 18,000 tons were exported in 1916, worth approximately $5,000,000, but with high prices and abnormal demand due to the war. Less than one per cent of the quantity was exported in 1912. The ores are rich, often running 70 per cent pure metal.

Zinc in the form of sulphides or blends is abundant, largely in connection with silver. Such ores are sent to Europe, there to be separated, the scarcity and almost prohibitive price of coal rendering such a course desirable for various products, to avoid the excessive cost of smelting; at the same time the high cost of transportation limits the export.

Wolfram, an iron-manganese tungstate, is found near veins of tin and much is exported, the production being especially in the Santa Cruz district, at the northeast of Cochabamba. Some lodes contain no less than 50 per cent of tungstic acid, the ores concentrated for export running higher. About 7¹⁄₂ million pounds were exported in 1918 valued at nearly $3,708,000.

Coal. The lack of good coal is the chief fault in nature’s economy in Bolivia. Its usual cost in La Paz is $40-$50 a ton, at times $75. It is therefore used as little as possible, although some is imported. While Bolivia has been said to possess no coal at all, a lignite of fair quality has been discovered in the peninsula of Copacabana, Lake Titicaca, some of which has been used by the Guaqui-La Paz Railway to develop electric power; but not in serious fashion, experimental merely. Other seams are found near the Ayoapó station, which a company has been organized to exploit. Good samples have come from Tacora on the Arica Railway near the frontier, the coal said to be equal to that of Coronel in Chile, the seams rich and thick. If so their exploitation will immensely advance the industries of the country. Good coal is reported across the mountains from Sorata and lignite is found near Cochabamba.

On account of the enormous cost of coal, various substitutes are in use. On the plateau there is practically no wood. For heating, foreigners generally employ oil stoves, the natives nothing at all, though the mercury may range from 40° to 50° in the house on a winter’s day. In La Paz for cooking purposes a substance called taquia is employed. It looks like pecan nuts, but is the dung of llamas, which is collected by Indians on the plateau or elsewhere. It sells generally at about $4 a ton, but has lately risen to $7. It is the principal fuel used at the mines of Corocoro. In some places as at Potosí, yareta is used, a vegetable or shrub which grows in a dense mass to a height of several feet with a greater diameter. The green mass has a woody fibre, is highly resinous, and burns like peat, giving a good amount of heat. It grows at altitudes between 13,000 and 16,000 feet. Another woody shrub, a species of broom called tola, is used, with another, quenua, which like charcoal gives much heat with little ash. Extensive peat beds exist near La Paz, estimated to yield 30,000,000 tons of briquettes with a fuel value about half that of coal. The discovery and wide exploitation of coal and petroleum would be an immense boon both to industry and to the householders.

Petroleum is now believed to exist in large quantities, sufficient to solve the fuel problem. The best known fields are in the southeast where seepages occur and a belt is indicated extending northwest and southeast 150 miles from the Argentine border. Concessions covering millions of acres have been granted to American companies. The zone traverses the Provinces of Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca, and Tarija. Geological investigations indicate that a petroleum belt or basin exists along the foothills of the east side of the East Cordillera. There are indications in the Beni district a considerable distance north of La Paz, and beyond the Madidi in Colonias. A probable thickness of over-lying strata in southeast Bolivia is 160-660 feet. If so development costs will be diminished. The great difficulty is the inaccessibility of the locations. On this account few wells have yet been sunk. To pipe the oil up to the plateau would be an expensive, some say an impracticable, proposition. At present approached only by cart roads or caminos, the fields will be rendered more accessible by the railways planned from Puerto Suarez or Pacheco and from Argentina to Santa Cruz. The oils vary in quality, some having an asphalt base with 4 per cent of gasoline, up to .81 specific gravity with 40 per cent of gasoline. The heavier is in the lower sands. Along the eastern base of the Andes the petroleum is of high grade. Samples of oil from Espejos Spring, 12 leagues from Santa Cruz, indicate the quality expected north to the Madre de Dios. This has 78 per cent kerosene, 17 lubricating oil, and 4 per cent coke. From indications it is believed that gushers would come by boring to proper depth. It is said that deposits of good quality are indicated at Calacoto on the Arica Railway, a continuation of the Titicaca fields of Peru. These are obviously much more accessible but less assured.

Mining properties of various kinds may be acquired and worked to good advantage, some with a moderate outlay of capital; with larger returns, naturally, from greater expenditure for the best equipment and more extensive properties. There is work for centuries.

Industries

Other than mining industries are slightly developed, being local in character for lack of proper transportation. There is therefore opportunity for their introduction, the needs meanwhile being supplied by importation.

Weaving. The weaving industry is one for which the natives are peculiarly adapted; the Indians and the mestizos now produce with crude equipment goods of excellent quality for strength and often for color. In certain Provinces good strong cotton cloth is made which, used for sheeting, clothing, etc., lasts indefinitely. The natives make also heavy woolen stuff from llama wool, and fine soft material from vicuña, alpaca, and silk. But not half enough is woven to supply the demand, so that much coarse cotton cloth and a woolen called bayeta are imported for the use of the Indians, as well as fine goods for the white population. The llamas, estimated as numbering 500,000, are worth from $4 to $10 each; the alpacas, about half as many, are valued at $50-75 each. There are also 500,000 goats.

Rugs and skins are exported in small quantities, the animals from which these are taken growing rarer and liable to become extinct. Rugs of vicuña skin have at least doubled in price since 1906 (their export is forbidden), as is the case also with the chinchilla. Of the latter there are two varieties, the blue and the white. They are hunted by the Indians as are also the vicuñas. The former are now crossed with the viscacha, a rodent resembling a hare, the resulting animal being capable of domestication. Though the skins are inferior to genuine chinchilla they serve the purpose.

It would be a most valuable enterprise if the vicuña could be domesticated. At present the animals are wild like the guanaco, but the breeding of herds ought to be possible if the greatest care were exercised. The vicuña wool is probably the finest existing, and if the animals could be saved from destruction and their numbers increased, a highly profitable business would result. These animals, like the guanacos, wander in small groups in remote places at high altitudes, 14,000 to 16,000 feet, often difficult of access among the mountains. These with the llamas and alpacas are ruminants, the two latter domesticated and living in large herds.

The alpaca wool is much superior to that of the llama and better than that of the sheep; if the animals were rationally bred on a large scale the business should be extremely profitable. The animal has shorter legs than the llama which it resembles; it is never used as a burden bearer. The alpaca flourishes on the Titicaca Plateau and in higher, cold and solitary mountain sections, among seed bearing grasses where snow falls instead of rain. It requires better forage than the llama. Pure water is an absolute essential. Their long fleece, sheared once in two years, is always in great demand; a fleece weighs 10-15 pounds. The alpacas, numbering probably 200,000, are tended by Indians whose patient endurance qualify them in a measure, but who need instruction to supervise them with more intelligent care. There are vast lands suitable for their breeding and culture, and regions where sheep, donkeys, goats, and cattle may be raised. None of these industries is practised except in a small way, though land, suitable fodder, and climate are all of the best.

Stock raising is carried on to a limited extent only, though conditions for raising horned cattle are said to be ideal on the llanos of the southeast, where vast natural prairies alternate with forests, and many wild cattle exist. The large possibilities of this region will undoubtedly be utilized before many years. Difficulty in reaching markets is the great present drawback, but Argentine capitalists have looked over the eastern lowlands and may find early means for their exploitation. On the higher lands also are sections where the business may be carried on to advantage. As at present only ordinary stock is raised with no care in breeding, merely to supply local needs for meat, there is need of imported cattle and better methods, as is the case with sheep. Figures given for cattle are 800,000 head, of sheep 1¹⁄₂ million. Many more of the latter should be raised in some sections of the plateau region. Mutton is more of a staple food, largely used, dried and salted, by the Indians. Thus prepared it is called chalona; dried-beef is called charque. The cultivation of Siberian grasses on the plateau is suggested. Few hogs are raised, although many districts are well adapted to them.

Agriculture

In agriculture Bolivia has enormous possibilities, but at present small production. About 5,000,000 acres are under cultivation. With the varying altitude and climate the vegetable products are similar to those of the preceding countries, many of these spontaneous, a few cultivated. The latter are almost solely for internal consumption. On the plateau grow barley, quinua, and potatoes, the last, when frozen called chuño, are the basis of the Indians’ diet; barley is much used for fodder; quinua, a very nutritious millet, easy to cultivate and hardy, in the form of meal among the plateau Indians takes the place of wheat and corn, which do not grow at this altitude. In the valleys below there is plenty of corn, from which is made the Indians’ favorite drink, chicha, though they will readily drink plain alcohol of poor quality when they can get it. Wheat and rice are raised in eastern Cochabamba, admirable coffee in the yungas, cacao, and coca; none in sufficient quantity to supply the home market except coca. Some coffee is exported but more is imported from Brazil and Peru. All needful supplies could be provided in one or another part of the country if population and means of transport existed.

Other Products. Cacao is less cultivated than coffee, though raised in two departments. Trees are growing untended in the Rio Madidi and Madre de Dios sections. Sugar cane is cultivated in Santa Cruz and elsewhere, but most of it is used for making aguardiente, and molasses or other syrup. More than 200,000 gallons of alcohol come annually from Santa Cruz. Rice also is grown in this Department giving two harvests a year. It might be cultivated in other sections. Tobacco of excellent quality thrives in many places, but not enough is raised for home consumption. Viticulture is slightly practised with primitive methods. Fruits of many varieties as in Peru are raised, including especially fine oranges. Various vegetables are grown but in these lines the development is slight and poor.

Coca alone is exported among agricultural products, chiefly to Chile and Argentina. Cultivated also in Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, the chief centre is in the yungas of La Paz. The leaf is richer in alkaloid than the Peruvian, as I myself noted, but as yet it has not been so much exported to Europe on account of its higher price. The plantations are in terraces on the mountain slopes between 5000 and 7000 feet altitude. In the yungas the bushes are usually three or four feet high, but may grow to seven or eight. A small crop may be gathered 18 months after planting, but only in four or five years are they in full leaf. Three times a year the leaves are gathered, and with good care the plantations will last half a century. The leaves are picked by hand, dried, and stored in a dry place, later packed in bales and pressed. Properly used the chewing of coca in the highlands may be a blessing. Carried to the excess usual among the Indians it is a curse, as it is where here used in drinks sold at the soda counter, creating a habit as vicious as that of alcohol or opium. For the cultivation of cotton on the lowlands there is much suitable soil and climate.

Forestry

Of forestal products Bolivia contains all those found in the other sections of the Amazon basin, varieties of timber, medicinal plants, etc.; but none at present is of commercial value for export except quinine, manufactured from cinchona bark, and rubber.

Rubber. The rubber industry of Bolivia is second to that of minerals. In amount of this export the country is believed to be second in South America to Brazil, though little has been touched of the vast territory capable of its production. Sir Martin Conway estimated the rubber trees of the Beni district as 50,000,000. There are four zones of rubber producing country, one in the extreme north near the Acre Territory of Brazil, with outlet from the port and custom house of Cobija; second, the greater part of Colonias exporting through the national custom house of Villa Bella, by Villa Rica at the confluence of the Abuna and the Madeira, or by lesser ports; third, the Department of La Paz, the rubber going out by Lake Titicaca and Mollendo; fourth, Beni, Santa Cruz, and Cochabamba, the rubber from the north going out by Guajará Merím or Villa Bella, that farther south by Puerto Suarez on the Paraguay or by Yacuiba, and from the west by Oruro and Antofagasta. The rubber of the region is chiefly that called fine Pará, most of it exported through that port and being of the best quality. The latex of the hevea is the source; sernamby is second quality made of the residue of the finer quality mixed with bark. The caucho from the castilloa elastica is little exploited on account of few laborers and expensive transport. With the opening of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway in 1912 better facilities were secured, this railway having been built a distance of 207 miles along the Brazilian shore to avoid the bad rapids on the two rivers. The flooding of the market with Malay and Ceylon rubber seriously affected Bolivian production and export, but these have recently increased. With the forming of plantations in this section, a work which an American company has undertaken, the rubber should be better able to compete with that of Ceylon, as its superior quality is known. The fact that the Bolivian export tax is lower than that of Brazil gives the former an advantage.

In the Department of Cochabamba are great quantities of maniçoba trees producing rubber known as ceará, of good quality but not the best. It might be cultivated in hilly regions and on banks of streams of the Yungas and other valleys in the Department of La Paz. The lot of the seringueiros, the rubber workers, is bad; it may and must be bettered if the industry is to continue. The establishing of plantations will be a great improvement, but some amenities of life might be made available even in the ordinary forest.

Investments

From the description of Bolivia, it is apparent that mining presents the most attractive field for the large capitalist. Mining experts with less money may be tempted to investigate gold prospects or to search for rich veins of other metals, later organizing companies for their development or selling at a handsome profit their acquired claims, as some persons have done hitherto. However sales are not always easily made. Petroleum is numbered among the mining possibilities, although the most favorably located fields may be preempted already, chiefly by American Companies, the Braden and the Richmond Levering, in spite of the difficulties of access and development. The petroleum procured would find its market in Bolivia and in the neighboring countries of the East and West Coasts where it is greatly needed. The oil with a paraffin base is of high grade running to 45.8 Baumé.

Stock raising of various kinds would be profitable in certain localities, and some forms of agriculture and small industries. Railway construction, the development of electric power, the installation of sanitary and other public works will afford many openings for engineers.