THE first questions asked the natives of Cuba by Columbus and his company concerned gold and silver, and they heard many tales of the riches of the unknown interior, but all their searching produced nothing of value, nor have the succeeding centuries added greatly to what was first discovered. Some little gold and silver was found, but it amounted to really nothing, and the mineral riches of the Island remained hidden until 1524, when copper was discovered near Santiago de Cuba; and here grew up the little mining town of Cobre (copper). Since that date deposits of asphaltum, iron, manganese, and salt have been found and have been worked, but not as they would have been in a well governed and progressive country.

The mining districts of Cuba are confined almost exclusively to the mountainous or eastern end of the Island, and so far the province of Santiago is the chief producer. Its leading product is iron ore, mined principally by American companies with American corporations. The first real iron-mining in Cuba began about 1884, when 21,798 tons were shipped to the United States. This was the first Cuban iron ore received in this country, and was about one-twenty-third of the total iron ore importation. In 1897 we received 397,173 tons of Cuban ore, which was three-fourths of the ore imported. During the years 1884-1897 we received 3,401,077 tons of Cuban ore.

OLD COPPER MINES AT LA COPERA.
OLD COPPER MINES AT LA COPERA.

The ore is a brown hematite, in large quantities, easy to work, of excellent quality, about sixty-two per cent. iron, and is especially adapted for the making of Bessemer steel. Though there are many mining properties, three American companies, the Juragua Iron Company, the Spanish-American Iron Company, and the Sigua Iron Company, do all the business. The Juragua does far more than all the others. Its shipments to the United States in 1897 were 244,817 (5932 tons, in addition, to Nova Scotia) to 152,356 tons by the Spanish-American Company, which made its first shipment in 1895, and none by the Sigua Company, which has shipped, in all, 21,853 tons. The Sigua began operations in 1892, the Spanish-American in 1885, and the Juragua in 1884. In 1897, the Spanish-American Company shipped 51,537 tons to foreign countries; bringing its total output for the year up to 203,893 tons.

Although iron ore of the best quality outcrops in many places on the estates once devoted to coffee on the southern slope of the coast range, it was not until the year 1881 that the first claim was located, or “denounced.” Since then more than a hundred locations have been denounced in this range (the Sierra Maestro), both to the east and the west of the city of Santiago de Cuba. Of these denouncements the most important, and in fact the only ones that have ever been worked, are to the east of the city, covering a distance of twenty odd miles along the range, a few miles in from the coast. The deposit is not continuous, but there are numerous separate deposits along this distance; some of them very extensive.

In order to encourage the mining of this ore, the Crown of Spain issued, on the 17th of April, 1883, a royal decree to the following effect: That for a period of twenty years from that date, the mining companies should be free from all tax on the surface area of all claims of iron or combustibles; that ores of all classes should be free from all export taxes; that coal brought in by mining companies for use in their work should be free from all import taxes; that combustibles and iron ore should be exempted from the three per cent. tax on raw materials; that mining and metallurgical companies should be free from all other impost; that for a period of five years the mining companies should be exempt from the payment of duties on all machinery or materials required for working and transporting the ore; that vessels entering in ballast and sailing with ore should pay a duty of five cents per ton navigation dues, and that vessels entering with cargo destined for the mining companies should pay $1.30 per ton navigation and port dues on all such cargo, and on the remainder of the cargo as per general tariff.

Under this charter the Juragua Iron Company, Limited, opened mines in Firmeza, laid a railroad twenty miles long from that point to La Cruz in Santiago Bay, where fine docks and piers were built, and, in 1884, shipped the first cargo of iron ore from Cuba. The company has a fine fleet of iron steamers. The mines of this company were extensively and successfully worked, and, encouraged by this, the Spanish-American Company and the Sigua Company purchased mines to the east of the Juragua properties and at once began the work of developing them.

The Spanish-American Iron Company, incorporated under the laws of West Virginia, and owned entirely by American citizens, built four miles of standard-gauge railroad from its mines to Daiquiri Bay, about sixteen miles east of the harbour of Santiago de Cuba. Here the company constructed a steel ore-dock of 3000 tons capacity, a landing-pier, buoys, moorings, and other harbour improvements at a cost of $500,000. The work of preparing this harbour delayed the opening of the mines for shipment, and it was not until May, 1895, that the first cargo was cleared.

The Sigua Iron Company built a standard-gauge road nine miles long from its mines to Sigua Bay, and there constructed a breakwater and a wooden ore-dock. This company during the first two years of operation shipped 21,853 tons. Later, the mines were closed, and during the war between Spain and the Cubans the dock, roundhouse, locomotives, and buildings of the company at Sigua Bay were entirely destroyed in the course of an engagement between the Spanish and the Cuban forces.

The Spanish-American Iron Company and the Juragua Iron Company remained in operation during the entire war between Spain and Cuba, and, although located at the extreme outpost of the Spanish troops, with Cuban forces in the immediate vicinity, maintained throughout a strict neutrality, and continued shipping ore until they were closed by order of the Spanish authorities, after the declaration of war between the United States and Spain.

The three companies, which are the only ones that have ever operated mines in the province, represent an investment of American capital of about $8,000,000, and the two still operating have paid into the Treasury of the United States more than $2,000,000 in import duties on iron ore. The following table shows the production of iron ore in the province from 1884 to 1897:

It is interesting to note that none of the mines are worked underground. The ore outcrops on the sidehills, and the mining is in the nature of quarrying. Daiquiri, the port of the Spanish-American Company, is the point at which General Shafter’s army landed; and the dock, pier, mooring, buoys, and water supply of the place were of great value to the army and to the vessels of the navy. The Spanish forces, who abandoned Daiquiri when the United States troops landed, set fire to the shops, roundhouse, docks, pier, warehouse, and cars of the company. Through the efforts of the company’s men, who were waiting in the hills and who returned as soon as the bombardment ceased, the fire was partly extinguished; but the locomotives, shops, some cars, and a number of buildings were a total loss. The hospital buildings and a number of dwellings at Daiquiri were afterwards burned by order of the United States officers commanding. At Siboney, the Juragua Company’s village, a number of buildings were also burned by order of the United States officers in command.

Rich deposits of iron ore of several varieties are found in the provinces of Santa Clara and Puerto Principe, and some work has been done in developing, but the war put an end to it.

The following list of the mining properties, all in the province of Santiago, with the number of acres, condition, etc., may be useful as reference:

MINING CAMP AT FIRENEZA.
MINING CAMP AT FIRENEZA.

All these mining properties are from two hundred to fifteen hundred feet above the sea, and though the climate is hot, the region is not affected by fevers or malaria, and it may be said to be the most healthful section of the Island. This location is excellent for mining and shipping also, being from five to sixty miles from Santiago; and nearly all of the properties have excellent outlets to the sea or are conveniently located to rail facilities. Nature as usual in Cuba has done her share, except in the production of man, and the most serious drawback to mining is the want of proper labour. The whites, except of the Latin races, are not equal to the work, and the blacks are inefficient as compared with the same class of labour in higher latitudes. The labour problem here, as in all other Cuban industrial fields, is the most serious which confronts capital, and its solution is to be reached only after careful study and continued experiment. All kinds of suggestions have been offered and many of them acted upon; but so far the problem is unsolved, and now capital looks most to the Latin races of Europe and the black race of the United States for assistance out of its difficulties. What inducements new Cuba offers to these people remains to be seen, but it is apparent that capital must do more in Cuba for labour, if it will secure what is best, than is done for it in those parts of the world where climate, disease, and social environments do not lay additional burdens upon the “hewers of wood and the drawers of water.”

Manganese, which is an essential raw material in the manufacture of Bessemer and open-hearth steel, is found in greater or less quantities in the province of Santiago de Cuba. The deposits lie in the San Maestro range on the south coast, extending over a distance of one hundred miles between Santiago and Manzanillo. As the demand in the United States for manganese was far in excess of the native supply, and the nearest known mines were in the neighbourhood of the Black Sea in Europe and in the northern part of South America, attention was at once drawn to the Cuban deposits and one American company was formed, known as the Panupo Iron Company, sixteen miles north of Santiago, with a railroad extending to that point. Other companies also began work, and the shipments from 1890 to 1893 inclusive amounted to 62,601 tons. In 1894 there was none, and in 1895-96 the total shipments were 750 tons. This decrease in business was due, in some measure, to low prices and to other causes than the insurrection and war, but that was the prime factor in the cause of the decrease, because already, with the promise of peace, mining has been resumed, with every prospect of continued increase and prosperity. Though only comparatively small efforts have as yet been made to develop the capacity of these mines, numerous properties have been staked off, and it is estimated that there are eighty-eight manganese mines in sight along the San Maestro range. The appended list names some of them:

In the majority of these, no active mining operations have been carried on. Whatever conditions of taxation, duties, and other expenses on the production of manganese existed previously have been changed by the war, and entirely new conditions are presented now for the continuance of the work. It is believed that the mines are practically inexhaustible, and that the metal, while varying considerably in quantity, is in the main high grade and can be mined and shipped at prices which will extend the industry until the United States steel manufacturers will get their entire manganese supply from this nearest known manganese district.

Copper. It is believed that the natives mined copper long before Columbus discovered the Island, for copper ornaments have been found, not only in Cuba, but in Florida, long antedating 1492. Whatever may have been true of prehistoric periods, it is known that the mines at Cobre in the province of Santiago de Cuba were opened as early as 1524 and became the greatest copper-producing mines of the world. As high as fifty tons of ore a day have been mined from them. Some of these mines were sunk to the distance of nine hundred to twelve hundred feet. Before the development of the great copper deposits in the United States, this country received the output of the Cuban mines, which were worked by English capital. From 1828 to 1840 between two million and three million dollars’ worth of copper was annually shipped to this country, besides shipments to other countries. Owing to the fact that below three hundred feet these mines were beneath the level of the sea, the pumping problem was difficult of solution and expensive, and at last, in 1867, this hindrance, combined with the development of copper deposits in the United States, which cut prices materially, stopped work. The shafts filled with water and have remained so. The only work that has been done was an attempt by a Cuban company to work the copper found in solution in the water. It is believed that there are still rich and valuable deposits of copper in this section and that the time will come when the red glory of Cobre will again be restored to its ancient prestige.

Gold and silver. Some discoveries of gold have been made in various parts of Cuba and in the Isle of Pines, and some placer mining has been done along a few of the rivers, but it is believed that the quantity found will scarcely justify the opinion that Cuban gold will ever make much of a showing in the world’s product of the yellow metal. Silver appears far better. Deposits have been found in the provinces of Santa Clara, Puerto Principe, and Santiago. Some silver has also been found in other parts of the Island and on the Isle of Pines. As early as 1827 silver was mined in the Manicaragua district, province of Santa Clara, said to yield seventy-five ounces per ton; and near the town of Santa Clara deposits yielding $200 per ton were prospected fifty years ago. In the lead mines of Santiago de Cuba, some silver has been found yielding nineteen ounces to the ton. More work was done in the Santa Clara mines than elsewhere; in fact little has been done in any of them, but the deposits in Santa Clara did not continue of sufficient richness to pay for working them, and in recent years nothing has been done in Cuban silver mining. Reaching a conclusion by way of the geology of Cuba and of the other West Indian islands, it may be safely predicted that the prosperity which is promised for Cuba, and which is sure to come soon, will raise the Cuban silver mines to their former productiveness.

Lead. This metal, reported to exist in several localities, has had no development save in Santiago de Cuba, where two or three mines have been opened. One of them shows a twenty-inch vein, forty-six per cent. copper, with some silver and zinc and a trace of gold. The mines so far have been opened by American “boomers” for the purpose of bringing the properties into notice.

Coal. A serious deficiency in Cuban products is mineral fuel; and although coal is said to exist and, again, said not to exist on the Island, Mr. Frederick W. Ramsden, late British Consul at Santiago, made the following report in 1895:

Some of the coal reported in other sections of the Island proves to be either a lignite or a hardened bitumen. Possibly workable deposits of coal exist somewhere, and efforts will be made to explore thoroughly every locality where there is the slightest coal prospect, as so much depends in the development of manufacturing industries upon contiguous and cheap fuel.

Asphaltum. Asphaltum appears to be a very general product of the Island and of the water along its shores. Deposits of it show in every province, in some localities in inexhaustible quantities; the deposits at Cardenas and Santa Clara take the lead in development. As much as ten thousand tons a year have been shipped from Santa Clara. At and near Cardenas the deposits are found in the bottom of the bay, and the method of securing it is peculiar. A shaft eighty feet or more in depth below the surface extends into the sea-bottom; and into this the asphalt runs or filters. It is supposed that the supply is brought from the interior through the subterranean rivers which prevail in this locality,—from which, indeed, Cardenas gets its water supply. Over this shaft the ship is anchored; from her deck a heavy bar of iron attached to a rope is dropped, and the asphalt is broken from the sides of the shaft and falls to the bottom, where it is scooped up into a net and loaded into the vessel. As this work has been going on for years and the asphalt replenishes itself constantly, it is fair to suppose that the run will go on for ever. It is of such quality as to be worth from $80 to $125 per ton in New York, and a ship has gathered as much as three hundred tons in three weeks. This and two other mines, of not such good quality, are immediately in the bay of Cardenas; and near Diana Key is the great Constancia mine, covering a circumference of one hundred and fifty or more feet, from which twenty thousand tons have been taken; yet there is no diminution in the quality of the deposit. There are several other smaller deposits in this locality. As asphalt is so general in Cuba and the mines are so generous in their yield, even under the crude methods adopted, it is only to be concluded that the asphaltum industry of the Island has a bright outlook; and when it is understood what a fine paving material asphalt is, and how greatly paving is needed in the streets of Cuban towns, it seems to be almost providential that so sore a need has healing so close at hand, demanding only enlightenment and energy to apply it.

Quicksilver is known to exist, though in small quantities, and as yet not enough has been found to pay for the working. Nickel is also said to exist. Petroleum is found in several parts of the Island, and in and near Manzanillo it comes out of the ground and rocks in a remarkably pure state. Natural gas may yet be found, for a gasoline mine near Santa Clara clearly indicates its presence. Marble of fine quality is reported in the Isle of Pines and in a number of localities in Cuba, but its superiority may be slightly doubted, as its grain is somewhat coarse and it lacks the proper density. The same may be said of such building stone as has been thus far produced. However, so very little has been done in developing any of these products and giving them fair tests, that definite conclusions as to quantity and quality cannot be justly reached at present.