Tin, Platinum and In the world's production of tin Bolivia holds second place, following the Malay states; the output for 1915 being 21,794 tons— about half that of Malaya, and over four times that of the long famous mines of Cornwall. In several in stances former silver mines are now yielding tin ores, the silver having disappeared. Many rich lodes of tin ores have been located at high elevations in the Bolivian Andes, at places remote from transportation lines, and the claim is confidently made that this region holds the largest and most valuable tin deposits in •the world. Formerly a large proportion of the tin output of Bolivia was won from placers, and while these are by no means exhausted, lode mining has been found more profitable. The tin exports of Bolivia now exceed a value of $15,000,000 annually.. Within the past three or four years tin mining has been developed in Catamarca province, Argentina, and small ship ments are reaching the market from that local ity. As a matter of fact, tin is found in nearly all parts of Latin America where silver occurs, but the individual outputs are small and do not appear in the records.
Next to Russia, Colombia is the most im portant source of platinum in the world. Its output in 1915 was about 19,000 ounces, and, as the Russian production had diminished one half on account of the war, the Colombia pro duction amounted to one-seventh of the world's output. From a value of $44 per ounce in 1914 platinum has risen to $100 per ounce in 1917, stimulating the mining of this metal to .he fullest extent. The workings are generally in gold-bearing gravels, and some of these de posits have been found in Ecuador and are be ing developed. Platinum in small quantities has also been found in the gold placers of Brazil. The crude platinum mineral, as it comes from Colombia, has a very large admixture of either iridium or osmiridium, amounting sometimes to 30 or even 50 per cent.
Very nearly the whole of the world's supply of bismuth comes from the Bolivian mines at Tasna and the Chorolque mountain. At the former locality the deposits constitute the larg est known occurrence of bismuth ores. The metal is associated with tin and silver and is nearly all sulphide. At Huayni-Potosi a con siderable part of the large yield is native metal. Another locality which has been worked suc cessfully, though in a -small way, for bismuth is that' of San Gregorio, Peru, and it is known that bismuth is plentiful in other Peruvian territory. For 1915 the Bolivian product was 568 tons, valued at about $1,071,000; the Peru vian .output was about 25 tons.
Coal. and Petroleum— The retardation which the mineral industries of Latin America suffer through lack of cheap fuel has already been noticed. The condition is not due to the barrenness of the territory in this primal necessity, but to indifferent development of a natural supply actually abundant. All through the Andes region coal exists in large quanti ties, and in many localities wide seams are ex posed to view for long distances along the slopes and in the sides of ravines, millions upon millions of tons being in sight. Some of these coal veins come down almost to tide water—as at Paracas and near Trujillo, Peru. Good coal is , found also along the coast of Ecuador, but it is as yet undeveloped. It is difficult to understand this situation in the face of the fact that in Bolivia coal imported from England brings $40 per ton, and delivered at the Potosi mines, $70 per ton. Although Peru has almost unlimited deposits of both anthra cite and bituminous coal, as well as lignite, the only considerable mining done in that country is by the industrial companies which consume it. About 700 tons a day is. thus mined, most of it being turned into coke. In Chile, new deposits have been discovered recently in the Aconcagua region near Rio Blanco. In South ern Chile, coal is mined extensively at Lota and Coronel, at the former place the mines running out under the sea for more than half a mile. The yearly output of the three principal mines aggregates more than a million tons. As fuel, the Chilean coal is not of the highest grade, having about 80 per cent of the heating value of the imported British coal. The Lota mines have been worked since 1852. In coal is found in many widely separated localities; good bituminous coking coal in the interior, and lignite beds near the coast. No attempt at commercial development has been made. There is more or less coal of fair quality in Vene zuela, worked only for local purposes. In Mexico, coal is very plentiful, and the deposits in some cases are of great extent. At one lo cality in Coahuila a visible supply of 300,000,000 tons has been found. Perhaps the most seri ous result of the delay in coal development is that under this condition no great iron indus try can be brought into being, and without this, the whole country must be at a disadvantage. as compared with other • sections. The coal production averages annually about 1,350,000 tons for Chile, 980,000 tons for Mexico, 300,000 tons for Peru and 16,500 tons for Brazil.