Philippine Gold

In the hazy days of the Chinese empire, centuries before Magellan reached the Orient, the Igorots of Benguet mined gold in the Philippine hills. The Spaniards snatched off their gold earrings and beat them into crucifixes. Spanish-American War adventurers, trekking inland, were greeted by natives crying "Ado Balatoc Bantay!" ("Lots of gold in the mountains.") But geological disturbances, dense vegetation, frequent droughts and lack of modern machinery kept the infant industry of the Philippines from rapid development. Not until last year did Philippine business men really begin to discover how much balatoc there was in the bantay and what it was worth. One day last autumn an old man strode down the streets of Manila waving a bottle. Men buttonholed him on the sidewalks. "They all want to give me money," yipped Old Tom Leonard. Old Tom, Spanish-American War veteran, onetime Philippine policeman, had been digging in the Camarine mountains for 15 years. Waving his bottle, he made his speech: "Until the past few weeks, when I'd come to Manila to look up my partners, it was practically a question of begging enough money to meet my payrolls. This time it's different. . . . Any crook could finance a hole in the ground in five minutes in Manila, and he wouldn't even be asked where the hole was." Proof of Old Tom's hole was in his bottle--glittering full of gold dust. Last week when the two biggest gold mines in the Philippines announced their dividends for 1933, it was plain that Old Tom's good luck was not unique. Benguet Consolidated Mining, formed in 1903 when the industry had hardly begun, was a richly paying enterprise even before it acquired control of its chief competitor, Balatoc Mining. Last week Benguet and Balatoc voted their stockholders a 100% dividend of $4,100,000. During the year they had extracted 219,000 oz. of fine gold worth $6,513,288, 50% more than they received in 1932. Balatoc for its part proudly announced that the average value per ton of its ore had been $16.13, against an average of $6.35 at the Rand mines of South Africa, producers of half the world's gold. Benguet and Balatoc, managed by John W. Haussermann, a U. S. citizen long resi- dent in Manila, comprise about 80% of the Philippine gold industry. Not listed on U. S. exchanges, Benguet stock (par value: 5-c-) is traded over the counter. Current price: $15. Near Benguet's holdings at Baguio, Philippine summer resort north of Manila, there were 16 other companies in 1932, including Big Wedge Mining which in January, 1932, uncovered a rich new field. When the U. S. started buying gold last year. 58 new mining brokers registered at "Manila in a single month and 30 new companies were incorporated. The Director of Commerce and Industry hastened to dam up a flood of worthless wildcat securities by revamping the blue sky laws.

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