riches
that the region contains arc nearly virgin, unexplored, owing in part
to the lack of capital and to the unhealthfulness of the climate, it
raining there ten months in the year, and the district being very
swampy. The annual production is principally exported through the port
of Buenaventura, and it would be venturous to fix the quantity of the
export, because the Government has placed an export duty on metals, and
above all in regions where the action of the Government is weak it is
presumed that 90 per cent of that which goes out will be contraband.
Propositions
have been made to the Government that it should declare the platinum
deposits national property, but they are so extensive and variable that
the Government has done nothing in this particular. Scientific
investigations will be necessary for the diseavery of the ledges from
which the platinum comes, which is now taken from the beds of the
rivers.
According
to Mr. P. P. Demers, the American consul at Barran-quilla, the
Colomhian Government a few months ago monopolized the platinum industry
in the same way as the emerald, with the result that at the present
time nothing is being done to develop these mines. There is now an
export duty on platinum of 1 per cent ad valorem.
In
a comprehensive report on mining in Colombia just submitted to the
State Department, Consul Demers gives the following additional
information concerning the platinum districts of that South American
country:
The
low Atrato is unhealthful, swampy, and devoid of all communication,
except water, and is navigable from its delta to Lloro, the mouth of
the Andagueda, almost 150 leagues. But lately some mule roads or paths
have been opened, to wit: From Medellin to Quibdo, from Andes to
Andagueda, and from Urrao to Islita, thus permitting the introduction
of cattle, mining material, and provisions for enterprises not at
proximity to navigation. Besides its water communication, Quibdo is also connected with Medellin by telegraph.
On
the divide between the heads of the Atrato and the San Juan is found
the "Tado" group, which produces platinum, until lately exploited by a
few isolated Indians only, but recently made a Government monopoly.
The
Choco presents a good future for hydraulic enterprises. Labor is still
scarce and dear, averaging SI a day with food, but Antioquia is not
very far off. and laborers could be imported from that source.
Although
it is true that the platinum industry in Colombia has been retarded by
the unhealthy nature of some of the localities in which the deposits
are found, there are excellent platinum-bearing sections, such as
Supia, in latitude 5° 21' X. and longitude 1° 40' W. from Bogota, at an
elevation of 4,144 feet above the sea, which are quite salubrious. It
should, moreover, be borne in mind that, with due regard to strict
sanitary measures, proper dieting, regulation of the habits of life to
meet the requirements of a tropical climate, and the wearing of
suitable clothing, the most unsanitary of the mineral regions of
Colombia may be robbed of their terrors.
In
closing this contribution it is fitting to give a few admonitions
gathered from the bitter experience of American and European companies
whose enterprises have too frequently gone to complete wreck, owing to
the unwise methods and procedure which they have adopted.
It
should be remembered, in the first place, that, although conditions
are steadily improving under the present enlightened administration,
Colombia is a new, virgin country, largely unexplored and unexploited,
like the great West of the United States fifty years ago. The Republic
is a tropical land, touching the equator along its southern border.
Its topography is composed in large part of the lofty Cordillera of the
Andes, between whose western slopes and the Pacific there stretches,
from north to south, a narrow, long belt of lowlands,
