GOLD IN TIERRA DEL FUEGO

It was a scream that ran like wildfire everywhere. Not only was it commented on in the main neighboring centers such as Punta Arenas, but it also appeared in Argentine, Chilean and other world capitals. At first, you had the feeling that you were in the presence of a gold rush like the one in California or Australia.

The first news about gold in Tierra del Fuego was a chance discovery, not exactly in Tierra del Fuego but in Cabo Vírgenes, in the Strait of Magellan but on the continent.

As a consequence of the sinking of a fishing boat (1876), the castaways dug for fresh water and found gold. Expeditions and exploration companies were organized, but the discovery of the coveted metal in the Fuegian archipelago was much later and also by chance. As a result of the sinking of the Golden West in Slogget Bay (1882), of the Bove expedition that invited Thomas Bridges and his sons Despard and Lucas as guests, the latter collected "black sand" and mud from the beach.

Some time later (1885), while they were residing in the Ushuaia mission, he showed what he had collected to Governor Paz, who became interested in the subject and sent a ship to look for more mud. He returned with a game and the surprise was the content of the precious metal. After this it was just letting time go by. The news was being published over and over again without missing stories to adorn it a bit. One of them was the one who, as a simple missionary at the end of the world, had become a millionaire along with his children, referring to the Bridges family.

We are grateful for the collaboration of Geologist Francisco P. Montecinos from MONTEX MINING INC. - 6020 Cliff Road, EVERGREEN, COLORADO CO80439, United States of America. He specialized in prospecting for gold minerals and oil.

The Maritime Museum of Ushuaia together with Zagier & Urruty publications has published the book "Oro en Tierra del Fuego" by Carlos Pedro Vairo.

Apogee

A human flood came to the area and although many asked for permits to explore in Argentina, in reality they were scattered everywhere. From Punta Arenas, some headed towards the Strait of Magellan, others towards the Atlantic coast of the Big Island and the rest to Navarino Island, which they used as a stopover and then went to all the others.

The important centers were several. In the San Sebastián Bay region, the Romanian Julio Popper settled in El Páramo with a large number of workers that included a small, well-armed army to expel the intruding miners. Without trying to do so, he defended Argentine sovereignty. He was a visionary for his time; He proposed the extension of the Railroad to Santa Cruz and the Telegraph to Tierra del Fuego as important, as well as urgent, points for the integration of the development of the region. Energetic, possessing a very strong character and with good connections in Buenos Aires, he came to mint gold coins and stamps. Gold mining produced 173 kilograms for his Company between 1886 and 1992.

His disputes with the governors of Tierra del Fuego, his strong stance against the interference of Chileans and the fame he earned for the way he treated the indigenous people, led him to be nicknamed the Fuegian Dictator. To the south, one of the main centers was Bahía Slogget, already in the jurisdiction of Ushuaia. Two other important centers were the Lennox Islands, New and Picton. The peak of the search was in 1893 where more than 800 miners worked in these places. Most of the men came from the Dalmatian coast as fishermen or sailors. In the Lennox refuge you could count more than 100 men, each with his own small patch of beach where they dug to remove the mud that they later washed.

Extraction method used

Near the breaker the rocks were dug between the stones and the gravel of the beaches and at a depth that ranged from 60 cm to several meters deep was the rock. On this you could find a black mud with iron dust and some gold. All the mud was collected and washed. Gold was found in the form of nuggets or, if not more commonly, in thin films.

On Lennox Island, a gold sludge extractor dredge was installed, it was later transferred to Slogget Bay, where its remains can still be seen. Another method used was that of the "challa". The gold sands (mud) were washed by decanting the smallest particles. With a magnet they removed the iron and then finished separating the gold with mercury; With the help of a cloth they squeezed the mixture dividing the components. The companies that were formed were many, such as "The Argentine Tierra del Fuego Exploration Company", owner of the Slogget dredge, or "The Fortunato Beban Exploration Company" among others.

Most of these companies ended in a resounding failure but they served to populate the archipelago, as happened with the Beban who settled in Ushuaia and Navarino Island. In the case of the English company, which owns the Slogget dredge, it also contributed to the development of the region as their discouragement was so great that they abruptly left a caretaker. The latter, after 20 years of caring for the machine and having no further news from the company, received compensation from the Argentine government when he was granted the occupation of the land; in them he installed a cattle establishment. Apparently and according to versions, with little concrete evidence, only those who arrived in the first years were lucky.

Thus it was commented that on Lennox Island 17 men in three months of work harvested 70 kilograms of gold. Others spoke of seeds the size of two or three pounds sterling, reaching exaggerations such as that at the Popper facilities in Slogget Bay, 14 kg of gold had been obtained in a single night, with seeds weighing more than 500 grams.

The truth is that there were many men who with hard and patient work managed to fill one or two bottles of gold and then headed towards Ushuaia or Punta Arenas. There they paid what they owed, made new purchases for the next explorations and squandered the rest, remaining as when they started the adventure. According to Lucas Bridges: "The arrival of the miners was for us a shipment from heaven."

It is that he gave the possibility that the warehouse of the Harberton farm had movement, in addition to being able to place meats from his farm. It also motivated other businesses to be created and more population settled. At that time, Punta Arenas was a thriving city where hundreds of steamers called per month. In it they replenished especially coal. It was the meeting point between those who were destined for the Atlantic or the Pacific. The era of tall ships was already in its last years of existence.

They were the ones who had to make the Cape Horn route due to the difficulty of navigating the Strait of Magellan only by sail. So it is that until the opening of the Panama Canal (1914), Punta Arenas enjoyed a boom and an enviable economic boom. Quite far away were the first settlers of the Beagle and the Fuegian archipelago who on more than one occasion had to ask the ships that passed through the area for help in order to survive. In the shops the oreros paid with gold dust; for this a balance and a coin were used as a measure. This custom continued for a long time since although there was not enough gold for a company if something could be found washing sand. The way of transporting it was in bottles and, according to what Vicente Padín experienced in his trade in the 1950s, the oreros arrived with bottles of cider containing powdered gold; filled they weighed about 15 kg.

The worst part of this gold rush was suffered by the primitive inhabitants of the area. Without understanding very well what was happening, the Shelkmans (in the north) were expelled from their lands and if they tried to take a sheep, as it was natural for them to hunt a guanaco, they would be persecuted, in the best of cases, imprisoned. The Yámanas were displaced from their quiet bays and quickly induced to other customs, the worst of which was alcohol; the women got drunk and if they did not surrender they were taken by sailors, oreros or wolfmen. The end was accelerating rapidly.

WHERE DOES THAT GOLD COME FROM?

Many wonder what the origin of this gold is and if the precious mineral can still be found. The answer to the second question is affirmative and for those who want to go in search of gold there are key places where they will have a positive result; They are: the Bay of San Sebastián, near the place known as El Páramo; in the Strait of Magellan, on a rocky bottom, and in the Useless Bay.

This is known from the research work undertaken in the 1970s by North American and Chilean companies. Geologist Francisco P. Montecinos, from MONTEX Mining Inc. of the United States of North America, determined the presence of gold with different concentrations in the mentioned places. According to his studies, it is alluvial gold carried by the waters of the rivers to the sea, being then carried away by the marine currents.

This is how the different rivers in the Bay of San Sebastián carry gold particles that, upon entering the Atlantic Ocean, are carried away by a marine current that circulates northward, reducing the deposit in El Páramo. Even a North American company began with the extraction of gold in the Strait of Magellan, in the decade of the 80, but its result was not economically enough for them. Now, what is alluvial gold? Very simple, it is metal left uncovered by glaciers in moraines; the successive precipitations and thaws causes that this is carried by the water. It is a process of millions of years and the first miners who settled in the area were able to obtain what no one touched for many millennia. Otherwise the Yugoslav Popper would never have minted his own gold coins.

Black Gold: oil

The exploitation of oil and gas began with the works of the Fiscal Oil Fields in the San Sebastián area and later spread throughout the north of the island. At present, exploration and drilling continues by the sea and it is believed that there is a large basin up to the Malvinas.

The Malvinas are within 200 meters of depth and it is very possible that oil can be found. That is why the issue of sovereignty is so important given that it gives a projection of 200 miles around them. The first well drilled (TF-1) was in 1949 and is one of the gas suppliers. Crude oil production is loaded onto ships in the Bay of San Sebastián by means of bollards. A gas pipeline runs throughout the island and transfers the liquid gas to the mainland. As of 1991, the privatization process of oil exploration, drilling and extraction began, as well as the commercialization. Natural Gas is also in this process. There are currently several hundred wells in operation on land and several platforms in the Strait of Magellan. Unfortunately, a lot of gas is released into the vent and burned due to not having sufficient facilities.