As to the immediate outlook it may be said there are enormous gold-bearing deposits on the summits and slopes of the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes, and this section is probably richer than the most productive area now being worked anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. Glacial moraines miles in extent show gold in paying quantities, and great alluvial ((pampas* are equally rich. In addition, gold may be picked out of every stream flowing down to the lowlands. In the Nechi and Condoto rivers in Colombia dredges are at work, the yield ranging from 20 to 50 cents a cubic yard, though not yet in the richest section. Drills show that an average of 70 cents per yard pre vails throughout a mass of 7,000,000 yards. In 1915 gold to the value of $1,720,000 was taken by two dredges from the Nechi River. The mines of Chiquiaguillo are noted for the un usual size of the nuggets secured, the largest weighting 521/2 ounces, of which 47 ounces were solid gold. In the form of lodes gold is found both on the eastern and western slopes of the Andes, the veins often crossing the water courses, and showing an outcrop hun dreds to thousands of feet above the base of the ravines. They are traceable for miles, from three to eight feet in width and showing from one to five ounces of gold per ton. The whole country, and this is true also of Mexico and Honduras, is dotted with signs of ancient workings. In Honduras many of these diggings are being worked to-day with the most primitive appliances and yielding sur prising returns. In the Brazilian plateau the ore is showing richer quality as the mines are sunk deeper. The Saint John del Rey mine is now the deepest in the world having reached the depth of nearly feet. This mine and the Ouro Preto combined have a steady output of about $233,000 a month. Formerly the gold output was mostly placer, and abandoned placer mines are very numerous in Minas Geraes. In French Guiana and Dutch Guiana some of the placer territory has apparently run out, though it is still considered profitable for dredges. With all its potential richness, how ever, the whole of Latin America is at present yielding only about one-fifth as much gold as is South Africa.
Silver.— Large as has been the total of gold produced by Latin America, the amount of silver has been many times larger. The records do not go back of about 1545, when Europeans found many silver mines yielding enormous quantities, and millions of dollars in silver ornaments, images and objects of art. At the beginning of the 19th century the yearly silver output of Mexico was about $27,000,000; it is now about $45,000,000. The state of Zacatecas alone has produced nearly or quite $1,000,000,000 in silver. The most famous sil ver mine in South America is at Potosi, Bolivia, discovered in 1545. Fully $3,000,000,000 has been taken from this ((silver mountain and its yearly output is about $2,450,000. Another noted mine is, or was, that at Cerro de Pasco, now equally famous for its enormous copper pro duction, the silver it now yields being what is found in with the copper. Another mine of fabulous richness is that at Valenciana, Mexico, which from 1760 to 1810 produced over $300, 000,000. In Colombia several discoveries have
been made of ore carrying from 500 to 750 ounces of silver to the ton. In Chile and Argentina silver has been found on both sides of the great eruptive masses of the mountain country, hut as yet is little worked. The silver output of those countries is largely that recovered from argentiferous copper ores.
The latest authoritative figures for the silver production of Latin America are those for 1914, as follows: Argentina 819.500 Bolivia 2,200,000 Chile 39,600 Colombia 194.300 Ecuador 12.500 Peru 4,618,400 Mexico 39,099,200 Central America 1,330.600 The total of $47,520,000 is about 41 per cent of the entire silver output of the world ($116, 719,000) for that year. With the increase of copper mining in Peru, the silver output of that country has risen to about $6,000,000 annually; a part of this, however, comes from the argen tiferous lead of the mine at Ancachs.
Copper.—For many years Mexico and Chile have been among the leading contributors to the world's supply of copper, Chile, indeed, having been at one period the largest copper producer in the world. Recently Peru has taken third place in Latin America's copper produc tion, the mines at Cerro de Pasco, long famous for their great output of silver, now being claimed to include one of the largest known deposits of copper ore. From Venezuela mines $15,000,000 worth of copper have been taken in 15 years. In Bolivia also copper mining has developed in many localities, usually in con nection with silver mines .of long standing. In Brazil some large copper smelters are in con tinuous operation, and the increased price due to the European war has occasioned the pump ing out of the old Cobre copper mine near Santiago, Cuba, which has stood full of water for a century or more. In Guatemala and Costa Rica many copper deposits are found, but few are worked, and these but feebly. Mexico's copper output, which in normal times is about 175,000,000 pounds annually, in 1915 had dwindled to 68,255,676 pounds. In Chile, however, the greatest development has taken place. Fully 2,000 copper mines are in more or less active operation, many of them by indi vidual native miners in localities far removed from transportation facilities, only the richest findings reaching civilization in bags on the backs of mules or llamas. Recent explorations in the region of Chuquicamata have revealed the largest known body of copper ore in the world, estimated to contain at least 700,000,000 tons of ore averaging 38 pounds of copper to the ton. And these figures are completely over shadowed by those of Peru, where the Cerro de Pasco mines are yielding 140 pounds to the ton, besides 11 ounces of silver and nearly one tenth of an ounce of gold. For 1916 the ex ports of copper from Chile amounted to 146, 605,900 pounds, and from Peru 91,766,475 pounds. Under the stimulus of the war de mand and the war prices, vigorous exploration is in progress throughout the whole of western South America, and a very large increase in output may be expected within the next two or three years.