The Platinum of New Granada - technology.matthey.com · The Platinum of New Granada 2 “This platina is a Stone of such Resistance that it is not easily broken by a blow upon an

The Platinum of New Granada

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“ This p l a t in a is a Stone o f such Res is tance that it is not easily b roken by a b low upon an Anvil . It is not s u b d u e d b y Calcinat ion, a n d it is very- difficul t to extract the Metal it contains even with much Labo ur and E xpen ce ."

A N T O N I O I)K I LI.O.A

From the preceding ch ap te r there seems to be no d o u b t tha t the p la t in u m that began to reach Europe from the Spanish colonies in South A m erica in the middle years of the eigh teenth cen tu ry was the first to be recovered in any quantity an d the first to a t t rac t the curiosity of scientists. T h e source was in the western p ar t of w ha t is now the Republic of C olom bia, b u t before em bark ing upon a s tudy of its history it is necessary for the read er to have a little back ground knowledge of the political c ircum stances of the time. Following u p o n the discovery of the A m ericas by C olum bus, the S pan ia rds in th e early years of the sixteenth cen tu ry overran in a com paratively short t im e a vast area of both northern and sou thern continents , while a t the sam e tim e the Portuguese were colonising in Brazil. After some bickering the possessions of the tw o countries were defined by a line d raw n by the Borgia Pope A lexander VI in 1494, ru n n in g north an d south m ore or less along the forty-seventh degree of longitude from the m outh of the A m azon to sou thern Brazil. T h e S pan iards p roceeded to develop their possessions to the west of this line an d to exclude all o ther peoples from settlement in them or t rad e with them . It is im p o rtan t to u n d e r s ta n d this overall p rohibition of t rad e an d export because la ter on in ou r story we shall find some authorities saying tha t the m ining an d export of p la t in u m was forb idden by definite G overnm ent ac tion a n d o ther au thorit ies of ap p a ren t ly equal s tand ing denying th a t any special regula tions to this end were issued. T hese two points of view are reconcilable if in fact the proh ib it ion was real with regard to export to non-Spanish destinations bu t was merely one aspect of a general com m ercia l exclusiveness.

T he Spanish territories north of the Is thm us of P an am a consti tu ted the viceroyalty of New Spain, an d those in and to the south of the Is thm us the viceroyalty of Peru, the capita l of the former being M exico and of the latter Lima. In

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“A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals”, by Donald McDonald and Leslie B. Hunt

© 1982 Johnson Matthey

\ m ap dating from about 1730 showing th e terr i tory of New G ra n ad a in the north -western part of the Spanish colonies of South A m erica . P la t inum from the Choco district near the Pacific coast was smuggled from the port of C a r tag en a , mainly to British controlled Jam aica

1718, for strategic reasons arising o u t of a ttacks by o ther countries in the C a r ib bean, a viceroyalty of New G r a n a d a was carved out of th a t of Peru, having its seat at the ancient Ind ian city of S an ta Fé de Bogotá, now the cap ita l of the R epub lic of C o lom bia under the la s t p a r t of this nam e alone. T h is vice-royalty was suppressed in 1722 b u t was revived in 1740. I t included the Is th m u s an d the north-w est of South America, a n d in it w ere all the a reas concerned w ith the occurrence of p la tinum . T h e E m p ire was ad m in is te red at hom e in Spain by a Council of the Indies, opera ting th ro u g h a Secretary of State. T h is body acqu ired voluminous archives still in existence at Seville a n d am o n g th em m any references to p la t in u m ca n be found.

A part from various small and s tr ic tly local occurrences, the m a in deposits of the m etal are in the south central p a r t of the C hocó region, a long n a r ro w strip of coun try betw een the m ain C ord il le ra of the Andes an d the Pacific. Q u i te early

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in their explorations of the coastal areas the S pan ia rds learn t th a t there was gold in the Choco, b u t the in land region was most difficult of access a n d subject to high tem pera tu res an d extremely heavy rainfall in a se tting of dense jungle , swam ps an d m eandering rivers as well as being occupied by hostile natives. By the 1560s several small expeditions into the basins of the Rivers A tra to an d San Ju an , where the richest p la t in u m finds were eventually m ade , h a d also reported deposits of gold, a n d no doub t th e rum ours reaching Ju l iu s C aesa r Scaliger, m entioned in the previous chap te r , owed their origin to these forays.

It was not, however, until ab o u t 1690 th a t the C hoco was really settled and pacified, nearly two centuries after the beginning of the conquest, a n d almost immediately organ ised explo ita tion of the m ineral resources began. O ver the next twenty years Spanish im m igra t ion increased m arkedly , as did the im p o r ta tion of slaves from W est Africa to work the alluvial deposits. (1)

These sources of gold — the great objective of the conqu is tado res — were am ong the richest then known in the w orld an d were eagerly worked, b u t the nuisance caused by the presence of p la t in u m m ust quickly have become apparen t. It concen tra ted with the gold in w ashing in the form of white grains like small shot accom panied by heavy black m agnetic sands a n d it d em an d e d a good deal of labour to remove it, e ither by ex tended am a lg a m a tio n — an expensive a n d u n p o p u la r m eth o d as the m iners found m ercu ry difficult to o b ta in and not too effective - o r by careful an d laborious sorting by hand . It occurred in the placer deposits in varying am ounts , and the g rea ter the p ro p o r t io n of p la t inum to gold the less inclination there was to work the deposit an d in some cases it w ould be a b a n d o n ed for this reason.

T h e Span iards called this white m etal Platina, a derogato ry d im inutive of p lata, their word for silver, an d it becam e know n as P la tina del Pinto, a small river near Popayan in N ew G ra n a d a no longer know n by th a t name. It w as also known as “oro b ia n c o ” , w hite gold, o r “j u a n b ian co ” . T h e local archives con ta in the first reference to “ p la t in a ” in 1707, by which tim e it had been used to adultera te the gold an d a decree h ad been issued forb idding this p ractice (1). Despite this restriction, a n d o ther regula tions im posing confiscation a n d fines on anyone caught so doing, ad u l te ra t io n con tinued for m any years, b u t p la t in u m itself was regarded as worthless right up to the 1780s, a n d was d iscarded and either th row n back into the rivers or sca tte red on the ground . It was tho u g h t by some that this annoying m etal was a kind of unripe gold th a t had not been long enough in the g ro u n d to m a tu re a n d to tu rn yellow.

However, it seems th a t at least some p la t in u m w as pu t to good use, most p robably by the m ethod originally devised by the native In d ian s th a t was described in C h a p te r 1. It is likely th a t the Incas w ho overran w ha t is now Colombia well before the Spanish conquest ad o p ted these techn iques to make o rnam ents of various kinds a n d th a t a few articles were similarly fabricated by Spanish craftsm en. A ccording to the chemist J u a n Fages y Virgili some m em o ran d a left by the M arq u es de los Castillejos co n ta in a reference to a gift m ade in about 1730 to D on Jo rge de Villalonga, the Viceroy of N ew G ran ad a , of

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T h e almost inaccessible region of the C hoco in New G ra n ad a in which deposits of p latinum were discovered b\ the Spanish C onqu is tadores late in the seventeenth century . This shows the confluence of the Rivers San Ju a n and C’ondoto where the p la t inum occurred to the richest extent among the alluvial gold.

“a rapier guard and a set o f buckles in platinum , although it is asserted that it had not sufficient coherence and was a brittle metal, although heavier than gold, with w hich it was m ixed as a dross in the m ines o f the province of C itaro in the district of C hocó." (2)

Some further evidence of this is to be found in one of the letters to the Royal Society w rit ten in 1750 by Dr. W il l iam Brownrigg th a t will be dea lt with m ore fully in C h ap te r 3. H ere he m entions :

“T he Spaniards have a W ay of m eltin g it down, either alone, or by m eans of som e Flux, and cast it into Sword-hilts. Buckles, Snuff-boxes, and other U ten s ils .” (3)

Antonio de U lloa’s Voyage of DiscoveryT h e first person to m ake Europe fam il ia r with the n am e “ p la t in a ” , however, was a young Spanish naval officer n am ed Antonio de Ulloa, a n d this cam e abou t in a most indirect m anner . In the 1730s o n e of the questions being discussed am ong astronom ers was w hether the ea r th w as an ob la te spheroid , as N ew ton h ad p re

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dieted, or a prolate spheroid; th a t is to say w he the r it was flattened or sharpened at the poles. To resolve this it was necessary to m easu re the length of a degree of longitude at the eq u a to r a n d aga in a t som ewhere as nea r as possible to one of the poles. T he Academ ie des Sciences in Paris took the m a t te r in h an d a n d arranged for one expedition to go to Lap land , in the far north of Sweden, led by the famous m a th em atic ian iMaupertuis, while on its beha lf Louis X V sought the permission of his uncle King Philip V of Spain for an o th e r mission to visit Quito. T he exclusion of foreigners from the Spanish colonies h a d been m u ch relaxed under the B ourbon Kings of Spain, an d perm ission was given with the proviso that two Spanish scientifically tra ined naval officers shou ld be included in the party. T h e expedition, led by the French geographers C harles M arie de la C ondam ine (1701—1774) an d Pierre Bouguer (1698—1758), was therefore to be accom panied by D on Jo rg e J u a n a n d D on A ntonio de Ulloa, th en respectively only twenty-one a n d nineteen years old, an d bo th p rom oted to the rank of frigate lieutenants. They left Spain in M ay 1735 and aw aited the ir F rench colleagues in C artagena, the com plete pa r ty arriving at Q u ito in M ay of the following year. After making their m any observations under great difficulties Ulloa h ad am ple time to explore the terr itory before the p a r ty set out on their re tu rn journey, sailing ro und C ape H orn. N orth of the Azores their ship was cap tu red by an English privateer bu t m anaged to escape, only to be seized by a British naval vessel w hen they reached Louisbourg in Nova Scotia in A ugust 1745. Ulloa and his com panions were im prisoned an d conveyed to London, where all his papers were confiscated by the A dm iralty . However, he was befriended by M ar t in Folkes, then President of the Royal Society, an d by W illiam W atson , who was later to play a m ajo r p a r t in the discovery of p la t inum . Ulloa was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1746, had his pape rs restored to him , a n d in the

L i i . P 7 . t o 6 R e l a c i ó n d i V i a g i

Caf. X . regularmente mientras los unos eftan lavando fe emplead los otros en cortar Material ; y afsi no tienen lugar de parar los bitairroi. La Lcji de elle Oro es por lo regular de i a . Quilates alguno paflá de ella, y llega halla 1 3 ; y por el contrario baxa también , aunque no es común que fea menos de 1 1 . Quilate. En el Partido del Choce , haviendo muchas Minas de Lrtadtro , como las que Ce acaban de explicar, fe encuentran umbien algunas, donde por eftar disfrazado, y envuelto el Oro con otros Cuerpos Metálicos, Jugos , y Piedras, necefsita para fu beneficio del auxilia a e f / í^ i i f ¡ y tal vez fe hallan Minerales-; donde la Tlatmt < Piedra de tanta refiítencia, que no es fácil romperla , ni dcfmenuzarla con la fuerza del golpe fobre el Yunque de Acero) es caufa de que fe abandonen i porque ni la calcinación la vence, ni hay arbitrio ̂ >ara extraer el Metal, que encierra, fino a expenfas de mucho trabajo, y corto. Taro-

ol t .hoco

T he passage in the book by Don A ntonio <le I lloa describing the occurrence of platinum among the alluvial gold workings in the district

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sam e year was allowed to re tu rn to Spain. H ere he com piled an accoun t of the expedition, published in S p an ish in 1748 (4) a n d soon tran s la ted into several o ther languages. A dozen copies w ere sent to m em b ers of the Royal Society in London, an d undoubted ly cop ies were sent to scientists in o ther E uropean countries.

It was in this book th a t a re ference w as m ad e to p la t in u m a n d a t rans la tion of the relevant passage, given a t t h e head of this chap te r , was read to the Royal Society by W a tso n in 1750. A m o re m o d ern version r e a d s :

“ In the district of Choco are m an y m ines of lavadero or w ash gold, like those we have just described. There are a lso som e where m ercury m ust be used, the gold being enveloped in other m etallic b od ies, stones and bitum ens. Several of the m ines have been abandoned on account of th e platina, a substance of such resistance, that, when struck on a anvil of steel, it is not ea sy to be separated; nor is it calcinable; so that the metai enclosed w ithin this obdu rate body cou ld only be extracted w ith infinite labour and charge.”T h e jo in t leader of the expedition , Pierre Bouguer, also m a d e a brief m ention

of p la t in u m in his own account, “ L a F igure de la T e r r e ” pub lished in Paris in 1749. After describing the s e p a ra t io n of the gold from the sandy m ater ia l by the use of ce rta in p lan t extracts he w ro te :

“ Som etim es also they have recourse to a quite different expedient: they make use of mercury, and are often obliged to do so in the C hoco where the m etal is m ixed with platina, a kind of pyrites peculiar to the region .” (5)

The Irish Naturalist William BowlesIt has often been s tated tha t U llo a b rough t hom e to M a d r id a sam ple of p la t inum , bu t there is no real ev idence for this. However, his book a n d his later travels were to have a cons iderab le effect up o n the early scientific work on p la tinum . After he re tu rn ed to M a d r id Ulloa, now p ro m o ted to L ieu tenan t- G eneral in the Spanish Fleet, w a s com m issioned by the new King of Spain, F erd in an d VI, to under take an extensive jo u rn ey th ro u g h o u t E u ro p e to study scientific progress a n d in the co u rse of the years 1750 to 1752 he visited France, H olland , D en m ark a n d Sweden. It was on his re tu rn th ro u g h Paris th a t he met an Irish natura lis t , W illiam Bowles (1705—1780) a n d p roposed to h im th a t he en ter the service of the Spanish G overnm en t. Bowles h ad left his native country in 1740, spending the intervening y ea rs in investigating the m inera l a n d vegetable resources of France, an d U lloa realised the po ten tia l value of his experience in super in tend ing the mines of S p a in . Bowles accepted the offer an d spent the rem a in d e r of his life in his newly a d o p te d country .

In 1753, early in his work in S pa in , he received from the M in is te r for the Indies in M ad r id a small bag of p la t in u m together w ith a note read ing :

“ In the Bishopric of Popayan, Suffragan of Lima, there are several gold m ines am ong which there is one called C hoco . In a part of the m ountains w hich contains it there is a large quantity of a sort o f san d w hich the people of the country call platina and w hite go ld .”

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T he opening page of the dissertation on p latinum by the Irish naturalis t ^ illiam Bowles, recruited by Don Antonio de I lloa to superin tend the Spanish mines. Before describing the experiments he carried out in 1753 he gives a warning against the f raudulen t use of platinum and of ""letting it loose in commerce.” Later he was more enthusiast ic about the potential value and applications of p latinum. T he book was dedicated to King Carlos III

D I S E R T A C I O N S O B R E L A P L A T I N A Y L O SAXT1CUOS VOLCANES DE ESPAÑA.

E n r 75 3 el M !nisterio me hizo entregar una porcton suficiente de Platina con orden de hacer mis experiencias , y decir mi parecer acerca del uso bueno ó malo que podía tener. £1 saquillo de Platina venía acompañado de la nota siguiente. E n el Obispado de Popa- y in , sufragáneo de Lima, hai muchas minas de O re, y entre ellas úna que se llama Chocó- E n una por- don de ¡a montana en que está hai gran cantidad de una especie de arena que los del pais llaman Platina, y O ro blanco.

En mi vida había oido hablar de tal a ren a , y comenzando i examinarla hallé que era una materia mui pesada , y que tenía mezclados varios granos de oro de color de hollin. Separados e'stos quedaban los g ranos de la Platina como munición menuda ó perdigones de p lom o, y con mas propiedad se parecía en el color i aquel semimetal que los Alemanes llaman Speis,e\ qual es un régulo de Cobalto que se halla muchas veces enclavado en el Safre ». El peso de la Platina me sorprehendió, por que eféSivamente es mas pesada que el oro de veinte quilates. Puse algunos granos sobre un y u n q u e , y batiéndolos con un mar-

V 2 ti-(i) Quando se trate del Cobalto de Aragón se verá lo que c% Sufre.

T h e M iniste r asked Bowles to advise h im on the use - good or b a d - to which this could be put, an d after m aking a n u m b er of experim ents on this qu ite new mineral, including de term in ing its high density, its insolubility in sim ple acids an d its miscibility w ith gold, he r e p o r te d :

“ Platina is a m etallic sand that is sui generis w hich can be very pernicious in the world because it m ixes easily with gold and because, although by chem istry it is easy to find the m eans of recognising the fraud and of separating the two m etals, since this means w ould be available only in the hands of a few people and as cupidity is a general m alady, tem ptation seductive, the m eans of deceiving easy and in everybody’s reach, there can only be great danger in letting platina loose in com m erce. ” (6)

Counterfeiting and SmugglingT h e government pa id a t ten t io n to this report a n d confirm ed the p ro h ib i t ion on the export of p la t in u m from N ew G ra n a d a to Europe, b u t it was too la te either to prevent its f raudu len t use or to halt the vigorous sm uggling t rad e tha t w en t on

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The warning given by W ill iam Howies against the f raudu len t use of p la t inum was not w ithout significance. F r o m as early as 1763 dishonest employees of the mints in Bogota and P o p a y a n began lo forge the gold coinage by using p latinum and then gilding the pieces. T h is specimen of a forged 8 -escudo coin dated 1778. shows the bust of C arlos III

P h o t o g r a p h b \ r o u r l e s ) o f H e r r W i l l y F u c h s

from C artegena to Jam aica , chiefly with British m erch an ts there. O n e example of this was given in a letter f ro m the d is t inguished L on d o n mineralogist Em anue l M endes da Costa, read to the Royal Society in D ecem ber 1750:

“ In January 1742-3 there w ere brought from Jam aica in a M an of War, several Bars (as thought) of Gold, con sign ed from different M erchants of that Island to their different Correspondents here, as Bars of Gold. T hese Bars had the sam e specific Gravity, or rather more than Gold, and were equally like that M etal in Colour, Grain, etc. A Piece of one of these counterfeit Bars was sent to the M int to be tested, and it was found to be twenty one Carats three Grains worse than S tan dard .” (7)

In o ther words these bars c o n ta in e d som eth ing like 10 per cent only of gold, the ba lance p resum ab ly being p la t in u m .

A similar case was reported by W ill iam Brownrigg, of w h o m m u ch m ore will be said in the next chapter, in one o f his letters to the Royal Society in 1750:

“ I am told that one Mr. Ord, form erly a Factor to the South Sea Com pany, took in paym ent from som e Spaniards G old to the value of 500 1 Sterling w hich being m ix ’d with Platina was so brittle th a t he could not d ispose of it, neither cou ld he get it refined in London, so that it was q u ite useless to him. ” (3)

A nother form of fraudulent p rac t ice involved the use of p la t in u m in the forgery of coinage. Specimens of colonia l escudos an d of the fam ous doubloons have been found, m ad e of p la t in u m an d th en gilded to give th e true ap p earan ce of gold, bearing dates from 1763 o n w ard s , while the practice w as also followed in Spain beginning in the late 1770s. (8) T hese counterfeits were m ad e by

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dishonest employees of the m ints a t P o p ay an an d S an ta Fé de Bogota an d later of course in M ad r id an d Seville, using the genuine dies em ployed for the goldcoinage.

Leblond’s MemoirT h e best descrip tion of w here the p la t in u m was found an d how it w as recovered was not given until some years la te r w hen a p ap e r w as read to the A cadém ie des Sciences in Paris. This was in J u n e 1785, an d w hen the m em oir w as p r in ted a few m onths la te r in R o z ie r ’s Observations sur la Physique (9) th e a u th o r was given only as “ M L. ” an d for very m an y years his anonym ity w as m ain ta ined . In 1969, however, Dr. W. A. Sm eaton successfully identified h im as M onsieur J e a n Baptiste L eb lond (1747-1815) w ho h ad spent som e years in S o u th A m erica an d who had b ro u g h t hom e to Paris no less th a n 200 p o u n d s of p la tinum , almost certain ly illegally (10), w hich he then a t tem p ted to sell in E ng land through the good offices of Sir Jo sep h Banks, the P resident of the Royal Society.

Leblond records in his p ap e r th a t the only ne igh b o u rh o o d w here th e re was any considerable occurrence of p la t in u m was in the tw o provinces of Novita and C ita ra in the district of the Chocô. T h e gold a n d p la t in u m occurred mixed together in alluvial deposits of w hich the gra ins of bo th were ap prox im a te ly the same size. T h e p rop o r tio n of the two varied in different localities a n d according to Leblond it m ight be one, two, three, four or even m ore ounces p er p o u n d of gold. T h e g reater the p rop o r tio n of p la t in u m to gold the less inc lina tion there was to work the deposit an d it m ight even be ab an d o n ed , since th e m ore there was of p la t in u m the less the am o u n t of gold o b ta in ed from th e sam e am o u n t of labour an d costs. T h e gold a n d p la t in u m were recovered together by w ashing

M É M O I R E

\ detailed account of where the platinum was found in the Chocô and how it was recovered was read to the Xcadémie des Sciences in 1785 In one M.I.. who p re ferred to remain anonymous. Mis identity has only recently been established as Jean Baptiste Leblond

S U R L A P L A T I N E O U O R B L A N C ;

Lu à VAcadémie Royale des Sciences en Juin 1 7 8$ ;Far M L.

L e point d’où fe développe l'Amérique méridionale, la C ordillère, eft le théâtre à la fois grand <5c rerrible, où l'œil furpris voie avec admiration ces abîmes profonds que creufent les cor reos qui fe précipitent des monragnes ; ces énormes rochers qui menacenr ruine, fe détachent & entraînent dans leur chute épouvantable, les arbres, les plantes, les terres & les minéraux ; enfin, ces monrs fuperbes dont la blancheur éblouit & la haureur étonne, la plupart couronnés d’atfreux volcans, dont l'explofion fubite ôc rerrible bouleverfe Oc menace le monde dune dtftrultion prochaine; la terre trem ble; des cendres, des rochers calcinés font lancés dans les airs ; d ’immenfes amas de neige (ont fondus, un déluge en eil formé : les hommes & les animaux que furprend ce défartre, fuyent faifis d 'horreur, leurs habitations font détruites & les campagnes dévaluée* par ces impétueux courans-d’eau , dont la violence entraîne tout ; ces débris emportés par les correns, forment

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T h e c o n c lu s io n o f t h e le t te r f ro m J e a n B a p t i s t e I . e b lo n d . d a te d J u l y 30 . 17 80 . to Sir J o s e p h B a n k s , sh o r t ly to b e c o m e P r e s i d e n t of (he R o ya l Soc ie ty . In th is he s ee k s to d i sp o se o f 200 p o u n d s o f p l a t in u m he h a d b r o u g h t lo P a r i s , a n d asks B a n k s " t o a c c e p t his m e m o i r o n the n a tu r a l h is to ry of p l a t in u m t h a t I r e a d last y e a r a t t h e A c a d é m i e d e s S c ie n c e s ”

P h o to g ra p h b \ courtesy of the Trustees of th e British M useum

and were then separated grain by grain with a knife blade or other similar means on a very smooth board, the last stages being achieved by the assistance of amalgamation with mercury. All the Chocó gold output, Leblond states, went to the two Mints at Santa Fé de Bogotá and Popayan, and here a second very careful separation was effected of any platinum still remaining present:

“The King’s Officers keep this and when they have a certain quantity of it they go, accompanied by witnesses, to throw it into the Bogotá River two leagues from Santa Fé or into the Cauca which is one league from Popayan; this was a prudent expedient thought out by the Government, which in addition forbids its export in order to prevent fraud arising from melting it with gold; it appears that today it is sent to Spain. Formerly an alloy was made of it with different metals like copper, antimony, etc., but such work has ceased because of the labour, always expensive in America, which considerably increases the value without real improvement in the utility. ”

Leblond believed that the pla tinum had an origin in the mountains, since hesays:

“The larger size the gold and platinum have, the more they seem to be nearer to the place of their origin; on the contrary, the smaller they are the further they appear to be from it; the aspect of the country confirms this for large grains of platinum or gold are rarely found in the plains at some distance from the mountains. ”

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Jean Baptiste Boussingault 1802-1887

Following the formation of the Republic of Colombia from the form er Spanish colony of New G ra n ad a , a small team of scientists was recruited to investigate the economic potential of the country. Boussingault. a F ren ch m an who had trained in mining and metallurgy and was later to become a pioneer in agricultural chemistry, was one of this group and was responsible for locating the reef which was the source of the a lln\ ial p la t inum deposits in the Choco district

The Source of the Alluvial PlatinumT h e m ineralised source was not, in fact, discovered until forty years after Leblond read his memoir. It was located by Je a n Baptiste Boussingault, a French m etallurgist an d m ining engineer recru ited by A lexander von H u m b o ld t in 1822 at the request of Simón Bolivar as one of a team of scientists called upon to investigate the m ineral a n d agricu ltu ra l po ten tia l of the newly independen t Republic of Colombia. He was first of all appo in ted a professor at the Escuela N acionia l de M ineros in Bogotá, b u t as w ith the o ther m em bers of the group he was given assignm ents th a t took him to various p a r ts of the coun try as inspector of mines, prospector, assayer a n d surveyor (11). O n one of these missions in 1826 he ascended a 9000 feet high p la teau to the village of S an ta Rosa de Osos near M edellin in the province of A ntioquia where gold m in ing w as active. T h ere he found ro u nded grains of p la t inum , m ixed with oxides or iron, in the syenite veins th a t were being m ined for gold. T hese gra ins were entirely sim ilar in form and appearance to those ex tracted in the valleys of the Chocó. Boussingault reported his discovery of the origin of the p la t in u m in a letter to his friend and p a tro n H um bold t , who pub lished it im m edia te ly in the Armales de Chimie el de Physique. (12)Persistent s ta tem ents will be found in the l i te ra tu re on p la t in u m th a t the Spanish G overnm ent prohib ited its m in ing an d recovery, b u t L eb lond denies this categorically:

“T hose who believe that the Spanish M inister has caused the p latina m ines to be shut up have certainly been m isinform ed, since there are no such m ines for platinum

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alone. All he has done is to p roh ib it its introduction into Europe, because of the inconvenience which might have resu lted from its being alloyed with gold, w hich was not easy to recognise at that tim e; a wise precaution w hich has assuredly forestalled a large number of frauds in the gold trade. ”

H e goes on to indicate tha t t h e ques t ion ca rr ied its ow n cure in tha t it was not profitable at tha t time to collect the p la t in u m , the only uses suggested for it ro u n d abou t 1740 being as small shot or in small bags for clock weights. It was th ro w n away anyw here an d everywhere, an d the story of the rivers no doubt arose solely from the practice of th e two M in ts described above. C asual th row ing aw ay led to curious scenes years a f te rw a rd s w hen p la t in u m had becom e a valuable commodity, an d there is a s to ry of how the m in ing village of Q u ib d o was wrecked completely in an en th u s ias t ic sea rch for d iscarded m etal am ong its foundations (13).

Samples of Platinum sent to Eu ropeSmall samples h ad reached L o n d o n , Paris an d Stockholm du r in g the 1740s,

as will be seen in the next c h a p te r , and ru m o u rs b eg an to reach the Spanish authorities of the intense scientific in terest being a roused by this newly discovered metal. In 1759 the V iceroy of N ew G ra n a d a w as o rdered to collect a large quan tity of p la t in u m from th e d u m p s a ro u n d the m in ts at P opoyan and Bogotá a n d to send it to Spain (14), an d from this sh ipm ent, over the next th ir ty years or so, qu ite substan tia l a m o u n ts were willingly forw arded on request an d w ithou t charge to chemists an d scientific institu tions th ro u g h o u t Europe , often in exchange for mineralogical spec im ens for the Royal C ab ine t of N a tu ra l H is tory established in M adrid .

T hese samples were sent a m o n g others , to M acq u er , the C o m te de Milly, the C om te de Buffon, G uyton de M o rv eau an d J e a n D arcet in F rance an d to W illiam Lewis in England, all o f whose w ork on p la t in u m will be reviewed in C h ap te rs 3 an d 4, bu t as in terest increased an d p ractica l app lica tions began to a p p e a r the d em an d grew for b o th leg itim ate supplies an d th ro u g h the extensive smuggling operations from C a r ta g e n a to J am aica .

A French par ty led by the ce le b ra te d na tu ra l is t J o se p h D om bey (1742-1794) arrived in 1777, nominally with b o tan ica l objectives, b u t before they left on their voyage the great s ta tesm an A n n e R o b e r t J a c q u e s T u rg o t , a t th a t tim e C om ptro ller-G enera l to Louis X V I , in s truc ted D om bey

“ to spare no pains to procure for m en of science such a quantity of platina as m ight be useful in their researches. ” (15)

D om bey was successful in th is p a r t of his mission, for he w as able to write to Condorce t at the Académie des Sciences:

“ I have put on board the vessel Bueno Consefo w hich leaves C allao on the 3rd April for Cadiz, seven cases for th e K ing’s C abinet o f N atural H istory. M . le Com te de Buffon, to whom I have addressed all of them , will send to you 11 livres of platina w hich I earmark for the Royal A cad em y of Sciences so that it can m ake som e experim ents on a m etal w hich has b eco m e the object of the curiosity of savants. I send a like

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Don José Celeslino Mutis 1732-1808

Going to New G ra n ad a in 1760 as physician to the Viceroy. Mutis m ade a num ber of scientific journeys to study the flora and the m ineral deposits of the area. After his death his records were brought back to Madrid and provide a valuable source of in fo rm ation on the early exploitation of platinum

am ount of it to M. Turgot and another eleven livres to M . le C om te de Buffon to be placed in the K in g’s Cabinet. H owever, if the 33 livres are required for a large-scale experim ent, I have no doubt about the zeal that anim ates these two great m en .” (16)

T h e S pan iards also sent out the ir own scientists to s tudy the n a tu ra l history of their colonies. O f these the first an d most famous was D o n José Celestino M utis (1732-1808) w ho originally w ent out as physic ian to the Viceroy Pedro M essia de la C erd ia in ab o u t 1760 b u t la ter m ad e m an y scientific jo u rn ey s to study both the flora an d the m inera l deposits. M u tis included in his long and intensive investigations the history and possible applica tions of p la t in u m an d in a m anuscrip t letter in 1774 he referred to tw o p o rtra it m edall ions of King Charles III th a t h ad been m ad e by Francisco Benito, a S p an ia rd em ployed as an engraver at the m int in Bogotá (17). M o re will be h ea rd of bo th M u t is and Benito later in this work w hen discussing the p la t in u m industry in Spain.

In 1777, in an a t tem p t to reduce or ha l t the vigorous sm uggling t rad e in both gold and p la tinum , the Spanish authorit ies o rdered the erection of a refinery at Novita in the Chocó, s tipu la ting th a t only gold cast into bars w ould be allowed

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to be exported once the p lan t w a s in o p e ra t io n (18). T h is move w as strongly resen ted an d resisted by the m in e owners w hen the refinery opened in 1782, par ticu la rly on account of the h ig h charges m a d e for m elting losses a n d for “ d isp la t in a r” , the removal of the p la t in u m from the gold sent in. T h ey also co m p lained of the inefficiency of th e operation . In fact the illegal traffic in both m etals was s tim ulated ra th e r t h a n curtailed.

Platinum after Independence from SpainIn 1810 a revolutionary m ovem en t b eg an in the colonies aga inst the continu ing Spanish dom ination, an d a p e r io d of insu rrec t ion con tinued for m an y years, cu lm inating in the founding of th e R ep u b lic of G ra n C o lom bia by S im ón Bolívar in 1820 but with the obvious ill effects on the econom y a n d particu la rly on the m inera l industry.

A scathing com m entary on th e ad m in is tra t io n of the new republic in re la tion to its m ineral wealth was m ad e b y a n English naval officer, C a p ta in C harles S tu a r t C ochrane, who sought tw o y e a rs ’ leave from the A d m ira l ty to visit C o lom bia in the years 1823 an d 1824. After describ ing the m ethods of sep a ra ting p la t inum from gold, and say in g th a t th e m ines considered w orth working for p la t in u m “ give two pounds of p la t in u m to six of g o ld ” , he goes on:

“ The governm ent are now endeavouring to buy up all the platina and having it sent to Bogota' in order, as report says, to m ake a coinage of it. But as British m erchants here offer eight or ten dollars a pound for it, about five sixths are obtained by them and sm uggled to Jam aica . It is great im policy that the Congress does not entirely do aw ay w ith the old S panish system of m onopoly; if they w ould put on a m oderate duty and allow the exp ortation of gold and platina, they w ould secure a handsom e revenue from it; but a s they entirely prohibit the exportation of these m etals, the w hole is sm uggled to J am aica and at a m oderate rate. T h e consequence is that scarcely a pound of gold dust rem ains in C olom bia and hardly a sh illing is drawn from the m ines of C hocó towards th e exigencies of the state. W hat blind policy. ” (19)

O n several occasions, beg in n in g in 1821, the new governm ent n u r tu re d ideas of a p la t in u m coinage, and in 1825 a L o n d o n m erch an t in g house, T h o m so n B onar an d C om pany , was asked to a r ran g e for spec im en coins to be struck by the Royal M in t in L o n d o n (20). T h i s u n u su a l request w as agreed to and a few coins were made, b u t nothing m o re was h ea rd of the m atter.

T h e re is one o ther story to relate concern ing p la t in u m in the newly independen t republic. In 1825 the Congress voted to erect a n eq u es tr ian statue, to be cast in p la tinum , of their n a t io n a l hero Bolivar, this to be erected in the cen tre of Bogotá. Boussingault, w h o had ju s t discovered the p lan tin iferous reef, w as appo in ted to super in tend its casting an d installation. T h e em barrassed scientist informed the M in iste r of F in an ce th a t he could not possibly u n der take this work as the necessary q u an t i ty of p la t in u m w as so great th a t all the m ines in C o lom bia could not produce it i n the course of a cen tury , a n d th a t since p la t in u m was infusible by the u su a l processes it w ould not in an y case be possible to cast such a statue. B ouss ingau lt records th a t the M in is te r said to h im

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tha t while all this was correct, it showed th a t Congress was ignorant, w hich would be inexcusable, a n d tha t he should merely write to the effect th a t he would spare no effort to assure the success of this im p o rtan t work; in this way nobody w ould be offended a n d the en terp rise w ould soon be forgotten. T h is duly happened , an d Boussingault received only two kilogram s of p la t in u m w hich he used to m ake several pieces of labo ra to ry ap p a ra tu s . (11)

In the m ean tim e the p la t in u m placers were being w orked only in a n in te r m itten t m an n e r by casual prospectors . L ab o u r was scarce as the new reg im e had em anc ipa ted the negro slaves, while the m ore accessible deposits were becom ing exhausted. But by this tim e o ther sources of p la t in u m were becom ing available to E uropean refiners from Russia an d it was not until very m u ch la te r tha t Colombia aga in becam e a m ajor factor.

R eferen ces for C h a p ter 2

1 R. C. W est, Colonial Place M ining in Colom bia, B aton Rouge, 1952, 6 3 -6 42 J. Fages y Virgili, Los Q uim icos de Vergara, D iscursos leidos ante la Real

Academ ia de C iencias exactas, físicas y naturales, 27 Junio 1909, 413 W. Brownrigg, Phil. Trans., 1749/50 , 46, 5874 J. Juan and A. de U lloa, R elación histórica del viaje a la A m erica M eridional hecho

de order de S. M ag, M adrid, 1748, 2, Book 6, Chap. 10, 6065 P. Bouguer, La Figure de la Terre, Paris, 1749, lxii6 W. Bowles, D isertación sobre la platina, Introducción a la H istoria N atural y de La

Geografia fisica de España, M adrid, 1775, 155-1677 E. M. da Costa, Phil. Trans., 1749/50 , 46, 5898 W. Fuchs, P latinm iinzen und M edaillen, W alldorf, H essen, 1975, 26 -27; 38 -399 M. L. (J. B. Leblond), Obsns. Physique(Rozier), 1785, 27, 362-373

10 W . A. Sm eaton, Platinum M etals Rev., 1969, 1 3 ,1 1 1 -1 1 311 F. W. J. M cC osh, Platinum M etals Rev., 1977, 2 1, 97—9912 J. B. Boussingault, Ann. Chim., 1826, 32, 204-21213 Enciclopedia Universal Ilustrada Europeo-A m ericana, Barcelona, 1907, 45, 55914 Archivo General de Indias, Santa Fé, 83515 A. M. Rochon, Phil. M ag., 1798/9 , 2, 2116 A. Lacroix, Figures des Savants, Paris, 1938, 3, 13117 A. F. Gredilla, Biografia de José C elestino M utis, M adrid, 1911, 157-16318 W. F. Sharp, Slavery on the Spanish Frontier, N orm an, O klahom a, 1976, 54—6019 C. S. Cochrane, Journal of a R esidence and Travels in C olom bia, London, 1825, 2,

421-42220 Public R ecord Office, M int 1 /2 4

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Charles W ood

1702-1774H orn in W o l v e r h a m p to n , t h e six th s o n o f th e f a m o u s W i l l i a m W o o d , i ro n m a s te r a n d th e p r o d u c e r of the c o p p e r c o in a g e k n o w n as W o o d ’s H a l f p e n c e . C h a r l e s s p e n t s o m e t im e in J a m a i c a a f t e r t h e f a i l u r e o f a s c h e m e p r o m o te d In his f a t h e r fo r s m e l l in g i ro n with coal in th e n o r t h west of K ng land . In 1741 h e r e t u r n e d to E n g l a n d fo r a t im e , b r in g in g wi th h im the firs! s a m p le s o f n a t i v e p l a t i n u m to r e a c h E u r o p e a n d to be s u b m i t t e d to scien tif ic e x a m i n a t i o n

1’hntograph fro m a portra it in the possession of the Tamil)

b\ courtesy o f X ir-Commodore K. J . I*. ^ ood



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