MINING OPPORTUNITIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00926A007300020001-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 24, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: July 29, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

Con.fidPYti.al_
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
COUNTRY Colombia
mining opportunities
25X1A
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(BY SOURCE)
DATE ACQUIRED
(BY SOURCE)
DATE (OF INFO.)
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HIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DEFENSE
OF THE UNITED STATES, WITHIN THE MEANING OF TITLE IS, SECTIONS 701
AND 7S4, OF 'THE U.S. CODE. AS AMENDED. ITS TRANSMISSION OR REVE-
LATION OF ITS CONTENTS TO OR RECEIPT BY AN UNAUTHORIUED PERSON IS
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THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
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SUPP. TO
REPORT NO.
l.. Colombia appears to be prosperous and bard at work, following the 1195./ coup
whereby the army took over the government from the minority Conservative Party.
The' all-important coffee industry seemed to be thriving, with favorable prices
for the coffee produced. New factories are being built in the principal cities.
New hydroelectric power plants are being completed. The petroleum industry
appears to be growing. Gold mining and gold prospecting have been stimulated
as described below. 25X1X
2. Three important changes, with regard to mining, have taken place
These changes are:
25X1X (a) Constantly recurring fighting between forces of the Liberal and
arr n e lor-stimn
t t
i
l
d
regions; to be explored.
but,, the work could not be done at that time because of serious fighting in the
sr
c y
cu
iff
Conservative Parties, heal. made it
work. All of this fighting, has now been stopped, by a general
amnesty to the Liberal forces. I was told that it is now possible
to travel Safely anywhere in Colombia.
(b) A recent decree has freed the export of gold. Miners are now
receiving 'about $1t5 per ounce for gold produced.
(c) A newring.c. is now being written, designed to replace the
anti . d. n ntf laws which )*ve held back Colombian mining for
many yea"
The following repbrt covers general background'data on Colombia, with regard
to possible future mining operations. I have also described very briefly the
former work done by ( 7 in that country,;and have indicated where, in
my opinions future exploration work could.bey ,,fed out to advantage. Many of
the areas mentioned had been lined up for s when we left Colombia in 1951;
U.S. Officials 'bnlI
f;nnf i_dent1il...
-
This report Is for the use within the VBA of the InteUipnce components of the Departmento or
Agencies indicated above. It is not to be transmitted Qerseas without the concurrence of the
originating office through the Assistant Director of the Office of Collection and Dissemination, CIA.
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burden of sail and vegetation makes exploration difficult in any case. Govern-
ment policies seem to favdr mining of all kinds. The economy of the country is
based on agriculture, rather than mining; so that it is unlikely that a large
min,i4g_operation would be treated as in Chile or Bolivia.
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consider Colombia to be a favorable country for mining
exploration. Much of the country has not been well looked over, and a heavy over-
Minim petroleum
5.
Foreign investment in the above, at the end of 1950, was as follows:
Petroleum
$219,037,784.81 v.s.
Precious metals
(mainly dredging
35,x+43, 795.37
Other mining
2,958,639-93
Total
257, 0,220.11
The above figures give a good idea of the present relative importance of these
industries The locations of the more important operations are shown on Plate
II, attached.
6. The Colombian petroleum laws have been modernized, and are now reasonably favorable
to foreign investment. Standard of N.J., Shell, Texas Corp., SoeonyVacuum.,
Richmond, and other oil companies are operating in the country.
The metal mining laws are still antiquated, being based on the old Antio-
ciuian aaiing code of 1887. Claims covering precious metals and copper, are
deAduneed as in other countries; except tlat placer claims within 100 meters
of a !'navigable" stream met be secured by special government concession, All
ether" tats, such as . lead1 zinc, molybdenum etc. belong to the owner of the
surface, unless reserve4. government. The last statement also applies to
non-metals. A p ins ion has recently been named to formulate a new mining
code, and present. it for consideration of the government at the end of 1953
If 's favorable mining code is adopted, the mining industry in Colombia should
be greatly benefited.
8. TTecious .etol.s. Colombia has long been famous as a gold producer.. It has 'been
estimated that historic gold production is about one billion doll 'rd, at present
price. In 1951, -the production ryas 430,723 ounces of gold, of which 76% was
produced bar placer dredging and 23% by lode mining.
9. Recently, the selling of gold produced within Colombia, has been freed from all
restrictions,. in an eff'ort' to stimulate the industry. j~t the same time, a .,l1
premium paid on gold production was discontinued. Average sales of Colombian
gold, since this measure went into effect, have been at approximately 5 per
ounce of golds
10. The lamest gold dredging operation is at Patol on the Nechi Rivera r h of
Medell , in Antioquia a Two' sidii lice of Placers beverlopment Corp, :hate,
6 to 8 modern dredges in opei ?tOn o The same interests operate the _Azuazu
placers on the Cat ver above Cali, now ,.~ g~ely rked. out . These three
properties noweating.?a~bout 2, 0, to fieof gravel per month,
and are recovering $0.315 per. cubic- yard treated,, at 'f45 per ounce of gold.
The second urge dredging a p.era Son, U tit of South America Gold end tinum
Corp, in t1 , Chocv- , south of the town of Quibdo, on the an Juan-River, on the
cific slop's This company also operates near Barbacoas, on the Telembi River,
in the Department of. Marino . Four to five dredges. produce an important. amount . of
gold, and practically the entire platinum production (.32,000 oz.' in 1951) of
Colombia.
12. The third. largest gold producer is the From~i Gold Mines Ltd., a.British o red
coaraoration operating lode mines and a , cyanide plant inntioqu3., in the
mountains south and above the into operation. The 500 ton per day mill treati
ore of about 1/2 oz per ton grade.
13. Hundreds of smaller lode and placer operations account for the remainder of the
gold production. Silver production is mainly a4by-product of the gold lode
mine operations; and amounted to 130,028 oih4o in 1951.
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>siumerous occurrences. of copper, lead, zinc, mollrbdenum and iron have been long
e Metals.. Colombia has never- hsad a la-rge base metal production, although
known. The limited size6,known deposits, high ' freight rates to the coast,
anti.. difficulties of prospecting in rough mountainous areas covered by soil and
yegetativh, seem mainly responsible for this lack of base metal mining. Still
another reason, is the fact that in Colonial I.times$ the Spaniards were interested
25X1X only in precious metals. The old Spaniard were good prospectors.
15. At present_ , iron deposits in Boyaes:are being prepared to supply
the new Paz del Rio steel industry. A single zinc deposit in Cundinamarca is
operated by Callahan Zinc-Lead Co. of San Francisco (600 tons of zinc ore
,WO#, Lead, copper,, antimony, 'ms lybdenum and other ores have been
s4
produced.. on ,e small scale in the past, when prices were especially high.
16. Won-Metals.. Coal mining is an important local industry in Colombia. Coal is
widespread. Mines are operated both by government and by private. industry.
Salt is a government monopoly. Deposits and springs are scattered all over the
country. The Zipaquira deposit is especially large and well known. 'Sulphur
is produced at a small flotation plant at the volcano of Purace, near popay~n;
where 2,, 500 tons of ruined sulphur were, produced in 1951. Johns-Manville is
prospecting for asbestos in Antioquia. The emerald production, mainly from
government-owned mines, was.68,000 carats in 1951,? The cement industry is of
great importance in Colombia.
.Possibiiit lox. for,Future, Exploration
17. Theoonly, large metal dgppsits so far discovered and worked, in Colo bie have been
the gOld end gold-platinum river placer deposits, worked by dredging. These have
been described above. ' recious Metals,'.
:.rc
18. C 7 pfLicipal exploration . effort in Colombia, was drilling the lower
Cauca River valley. placers for gold. V luee proved to?be too low for aprofitable
large=:scale, dredging operation, so the options were dropped. While this placer
examination was. going.. on, James Harding conducted examination work on prospects
that were brought in to him. Alter the placer examination was. concluded, the
writer continued general exploration 0.9 a small scale. All of this work was re-
ported on to the h'ew York Office:, at. the time. The latter part of the work became
more and more hampered by fighting between Liberal Party guerrillas and Conserva-
tive government forces. Finally, conditions became so bad that operations were
shifted to Peru, leaving much exploration work in Colombia for some future oppor-
tunity. It may be of interest to outline some of the work that w?aa then planned,
in case .exploration work in Colombia should be resumed at some future time.
re. p the most favorable place in
19. Precious Metal P ce
~_
th f
rom
Coia to look for large placer;, is the Pacific coastal area sou
Buenaventura, and extending into northern ECuadsr. Most of the rivers in this
area, such as the l ichicaya, Raposo, pa,3ammbre, Yurumangui, NA Y&,, Micay, Sai ja,
d man
ri
b
y
ng, an
ea
Tinbiqui, Guapi, Iscuade, aPsti'a. and 'Mira, . a a known to be gold
contain platinum as well. large nuggets of gold and platinum
brought. in from the head :'hers of sole these stream by the Negro settlers.
South American Gold and Platinum Corp.. ,hat '1E Operated gold drec.~,e for years on
a branri of the Pate River; and Vere starting to prospect
the Teleiebi River
,
25X1X the Micay River Titles to some of the River placers
are complicated by old .Spa i rants, ?- . y tiple ownership. It would be a
long legal - ;eb to stra4ghten thes out, vtreverall of these rivers ' hate the
great advantage of being readily aacee ible from the Pacific.
20. Another section that is difficult of accts*
of placer ground, lies across the Andes to
reaches of the Guames,;Jrcusigua and Cie
bilities worthy of investigation.
but may well contain large '8reas
e east, from the above. The upper
pl. Pe cious :Mentaltinesss. No really large gold mines have yet been found in Colombia..
It seems likely the large geld,] cers were formed by erosion and recon
centre Lion of : very. numero ~ i l a s i to >` Antioquia has many hundreds of
such deposits that have been proapftct car 'works. Possibilities for finding
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lame gold: mines :,are.>not ,so ,. -since4. the 'penis 'rds
c vexed the country
.Pretty
. ll in that retoCrj .,., However, `there .i'C still ao- chance: for large 1,?w ,
grade` depoai*t tan ?be' dd erect in Aatioquia, Caldas', Oeuea or .riao;' since
soil: auad , veg tatiCrn - make prospecting Jiff icult,' and.. the pa . iards here' not
interes,te4. in! Ver low grade deposits
22. 1i11pl eat nsmn: or d.
epcasts Mve 4'ver bee'n ibwnd in ?aelombia; twat the source
of the platinum in the placers is still unknown. A careful geological search
fop, basic ,intr signs ins, the: . tid al to southern' mieoti Bans of the Weotern,Range
41:eng. the, wos M 81d j04; followed by study, of 'the imtrusives and -contacts;
migh ~ st use deposits,
23? ,3ase'Meta t CoppOr-isvery wider ead in 614lenbia, but mown deposits. are
small '.at usually low grade. However, the Tolima area . seems to the writer
VoY,. 9f a careful ' further study of cdgperr p rspects So far, as I knout,`- the
goats Marta u pli hear never been wall prospected, seems. interesting . from a
.6eelogi0a1 ?standpoiat,.. and should be worthy of pros sting for eopper` and other
base. rptslg..
21I Lead an ~sinc are not so widespread. Future .prospects for these metals in
dolo*ia . on. *.large -sea. lo not appear, proajsfug b ' -However, the Santander-
9aldam aereew, And the eiaUrA;Ramge in 'C=dina arcs and Boyeci., seem to present
the beet.. po sibilitiel.
25. Molybdenum possibilities are more interesting. The frequent acidic intrusive
areas of the Central Range present good areas for study. In Tolima, kadwa
pxm ehtis .? 1e i"eU, rare so numerous t 'the area. has been described' hi e,
'] - enumn ta1lo8en3e,ar province.
26. As mentioned previously, prgepecting and exploration in Colombia are difficult,
due to the heavy; aisantle of soil and vegetation over most of the mountain area,
,no scatter, how, steep and broken. A major dr& nk : to mining operation in many
parts of ~ the,. coun t' is - difficult and asive tie lion toy-shu t .
Rowever, this it b g. ia~;-ra d by road construction and by iaproveaentss in, the
Magdalena . Veat*,yii . ge e , new rpilraaade are ' also under consideration. Steadily
inereaeing air, transport is.. ale. helping out,,
27. Colombia i s, accustomed to securimg mieet of .ts f+oreign exchange needs' from coffee,
be,riana.'and petroleum exports; . The country, should never be dependent uap. n'a
25X1 X metal export for these. needs, as are ,Chile and Bolivia
28. Colombia ranks, wttb.Perin, and to some extent Veneezuela,
as the most favorable South American countries for mineral exploration. A new
favorable Col.Ombian *ining code, ii aadopted, would improve Colombia: a ,position
still further.
Map . .
'Available from the-CIA/Library
wing:
..jtostat ' of . maT of Colombia
?l_ to I t T catiein < jai g and "etroieuda Exploitation.
Map call number. .8$$ b :? To borrow call emcee .113 ext. 2596:x" ?
735.59+
7E
4-5/731..1
7E
1-12/733.1
E.
1-12/731.31
7E
622.021
7E
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