THE MINERAL RESOURCES of Colombia are known to be extensive, and in Spanish times great quantities of gold and silver were ob tained from the country. The present production is small. Gold and silver are generally found in the central and western ranges of the Cordillera, where volcanic rocks have forced their way through the crystalline schists of which the ranges are composed ; the eastern range, formed mainly of Cretaceous and Tertiary strata, is much poorer in these minerals. The department of Antioquia in the central Cordillera, and the department of Cauca in the western —more especially the southern part known as the Choco—are the chief districts producing gold, which is found both in quartz lodes and in alluvial deposits, but is worked mainly in the latter. The department of Tolima in the upper Magdalena is pre-eminent for silver. Platinum is obtained from various rivers and streams in the southern part of the western Cordillera. Iron and coal are found in many parts of the country, frequently in close proximity to one another. The latter is mined chiefly at Bogota, but the former has only been worked to a very slight extent as yet. There appear to be large supplies of petroleum in the north-west.
COMMUNICATIONS.—The means of communication are exceedingly bad. The roads are seldom better than mule-tracks, and yet much of the trade of the country has to be carried on over them. The great highway is the Magdalena, which is navigable as far as La Dorada, nearly 600 miles from the coast, and again from above the rapids at Honda to Girardot, 100 miles, and sometimes to Neiva, 200 miles, further up. The Cauca is navigable from Caceres, about 200 miles above its confluence with the Magdalena. As the mouth of
the latter river is obstructed by a sandbank, two railways connect it with the coast, one running from Barranquilla to Puerto Colombia, the other from Calmar to Cartagena. These, with the line from La Dorada below, to Beltran above, the Honda rapids, and the line from Girardot to Bogota are the most important in the country.
COMMERCE.—The export and import trade of Colombia is carried on chiefly through its Caribbean ports—Barranquilla and Cartagena —which account for over 80 per cent, of the whole. Much of the export trade is with the United States, while cotton goods, mining machinery, and rails are supplied by Great Britain, agricultural machinery and locomotives by the United States, and many miscellaneous articles by Germany. For the years 1906-10 the average annual value of the trade of Colombia was £5,600,000.
Although the geographical conditions of Colombia in some ways favour economic development, in others they retard it. The obstacles to communication between different parts of the country have not only hindered the exploitation of its resources, but they have led to the growth of particularism, and so encouraged those revolutionary movements which have been the curse of the nation. Climatic conditions have tended to concentrate population in the upper valleys of the rivers, away from the coast, and out of touch with the world. Within the last few years the government seems to have been more stable and somewhat more energetic than usual, and attempts are being made to open up the country, but the scarcity of labour will prevent rapid progress being made.