Silver.—The mine production of silver in Wyoming in 1914 was 116 fine ounces, against 957 ounces in 1913.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
The
output of gold in the Philippines from 1907 to 1914, inclusive, has
been S3,516,261, according to Victor E. Lednicky, of the Division of
Mines of the Philippine Bureau of Science.1 These islands
have produced gold more or less regularly for three centuries, and the
earliest Spanish explorers visited and described the fields.
Undoubtedly, the rich placer fields of many years ago made a
considerable output, and since the American occupation it has been
hoped that western men and methods might materially revive the
declining industry, but it is only after long effort that the many
difficulties have been sufficiently overcome for production to begin to
be notable. Gold mining and metallurgy, including the latest American
practice in prospecting and dredging gravels and milling and cyaniding
the gold-quartz ores, may now be said to be upon a firm foundation, and
an extension of production both from lode mines and from placers may be
looked for.2
Gold.—The
mine production of gold in the Philippines in 1914 was $1,174,633,
against $868,362 in 1913 and $570,212 in 1912. About $610,000 was
produced by the quartz mines of the Arroroy district on the island of
Masbate, where the Colorado, Syndicate, and Keystone mines, equipped
with modern all-sliming cyanidation mills, are the principal producers.
The placers of the Paracale-Mambulao district m the Camarines Province
of southeastern Luzon produced about $515,000 from seven dredges, some
of them representing the most advanced stages of construction. About
$30,000 came from Benguet Province, and about $20,000 from other
regions in the highlands of northern Luzon. Production from all these
districts may be expected to increase in 1915.
Silver.—The
mine production of silver in the Philippines in 1914 was 10,300 ounces,
and was recovered entirely from gold bullion refined.
NUMBER OF PRODUCING MINES.
The
following table indicates the number of mines producing gold and silver
in 1914 divided into placers and deep, or lode, mines. The placers are
those in which the gold and the silver in natural alloy with the -gold
and, in a few instances, with platinum, are recovered from gravels and sands, whether by hand washing,
sJuicing, hydrau-licking, drifting (in frozen ground or ancient buried
river channels), or by dredging. The deep mines are those producing
gold and silver (from ores as distinguished from gravels), mainly from
underground workings, including those whose ores are valuable chiefly
for copper, lead, or zinc, but which contribute precious metals as
by-products. In addition to producing mines here enumerated, many
properties were being prospected and developed without making any
output in 1914, and many other mining claims were being held by
assessment work only.
i Mineral resources of the Philippine Islands for the year 1914, pp. 9-10, Manila, 1915.
2
Requests for information on the mineral resources of the Philippines
should be addressed to the Division of Mines, Bureau of Science,
Manila, P. I. This organization has accomplished much in field studies
and in publication of the essential facts of Philippine geology. The
detailed information is mainly published in the Philippine Journal of
Science, whose agent in the United States is the Macmillan Co., 64-66
Fifth Avenue, New York City.
