The History of Cuba, vol. 5Johnson, Willis Fletcher
History
The History of Cuba, vol. 5
Johnson, Willis Fletcher
Cuba -- Economic conditions; Cuba -- History
Since the visit of the American engineers another very promising
chromite claim has been located some four kilometers from the railroad,
near Coliseo, in the Province of Matanzas. The owners of this claim
announce an unlimited quantity of good grade ore, and were shipping in
the winter of 1918 and 1919 two carloads of ore per day to the United
States by rail, using the Havana and Key West Ferry. Messrs. Burch and
Burchard state in their report that the geological conditions in the
areas referred to above warrant further exploration.
The deposits of chrome examined in Camaguey consist of three groups,
which lie along a narrow zone, beginning nine miles north of the City of
Camaguey and extending southeast to a point only two miles from Alta
Gracia, on the Nuevitas Railroad. A level plain, covered with a thin
mantle of clay and limonite gravel, extends from the City of Camaguey
northward until its junction with the hills of the Sierra de Cubitas,
rendering the country easily accessible by wagon road. Float ore is
found in this zone, and broken ore caps some ten or twelve small hills
that rise from five to fifty feet above the surrounding surface. In this
zone there are also fifteen or more other outcroppings of chromite,
most of them obscured by broken ore and rock debris. Prospecting has
been done here to obtain samples of ore for analysis, but it has not
shown either the nature or the extent of the deposits. On the surface,
however, there is a considerable quantity of ore in the form of broken
rocks or coarse float, probably 20,000 tons.
Ten samples of ore from the deposits near Camaguey contain from 27% to
36% of chromic oxide. Only two produced less than 30% while a few ran
above 35%. This is a low grade ore but is suitable for certain purposes.
If it should require concentration, sufficient water is available in
small streams within a mile of the deposit.
Twenty miles north of Camaguey, near the eastern end of the Cubitas iron
ore beds, are several other deposits of chrome that were examined by A.
C. Spencer of the United States Geological Survey in 1907. All of these
denoted noteworthy quantities of chrome float, apparently of high grade,
and the occurrence of tabular bodies of chrome from one to five feet in
width. On one claim boulders of chrome ore are distributed over a belt
of some 1700 feet, and on another, fragments of ore are found in an area
150 by 250 feet. On still another claim, five deposits lie within an
area measuring 1200 by 3000 feet. One of these seems to be continuous
for something over 900 feet.
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