Placer Mining in the Rio de Canada Honda, Argentina

THE Rio de Canada Honda placer property is situated at an altitude of 5500 ft. above sea level in the San Luis Mountains of the Province of San Luis, Argentina. The mine is reached by 70 km. of fair truck road, from the nearest railway station on the Ferrocarril Buenos Aires al Pacifico. The Pan-American airport at Villa Mercedes, 1.40 km. distant, serves as the most convenient point for shipment of gold. Placer mining in the Rio de Canada Honda dates from the time of the Incas and the present native population depends on the gold washed from this river and the adjacent arroyos as a means of livelihood as did the many generations before them. They dig pits to bedrock where they are not driven out by water, and mine the bedrock gravel by means of tunnels and caves. No timber is available and the ground is supported by rock cribs carefully built with the boulders encountered; or with angular blocks of slate rock taken from quarries on the surface.