Part 2 - The Spaniards Use of Gold & Platinum

The Spanish interest in the resources of their conquests was centered on gold. Quite early in their explorations of the coastal areas, the Spanish learnt that gold was present in the Choco region, a long narrow strip of country between the Andes and inland from the Pacific. Access problems prevented early exploration: high temperatures, extreme rainfall, dense jungle, swamps, meandering rivers and hostile natives. In the 1560s several small expeditions did report finding deposits of gold and another metal which later became called platina. By 1690 the Choco region became settled and pacified, and exploitation of mineral resources began.

Although the sources of gold found in alluvial deposits here were among the richest known then in the world, they found themselves dealing with what most likely seemed to the Spanish a big nuisance. Concentrated in the gold in washing were white grains like small shot accompanied by heavy black magnetic sands. A great deal of labor was required to remove it, either by labor intensive sorting by hand or by a process of amalgamation, which was expensive, required difficult-to-obtain mercury and was not especially effective. This nuisance material was, in fact, platinum deposits which occurred in varying amounts.

The Spaniards called this white metal Platina, a derogatory diminutive of plata, their word for silver. A few ornaments and utensils were fabricated from this metal after Spanish craftsmen perhaps learned some of the Indian methods of working with it. In 1557, Julius della Scalla noted the difficulty of melting the metal obtained from the Spanish American possessions. Scientific investigation of the platinum metals did not occur for another 200 years, however. In 1753, a small bag of platinum was sent to Spain with the note:

“In the Bishopric of Popayan, Suffragan of Lima, there are several gold mines among which there is one called Choco. In a part of the mountains which contain it there is a large quantity of a sort of sand which the people of this country call platina and white gold.”

William Bowles, an Irish naturalist working for the Spanish government, was asked what uses the metal could be put to. He investigated the material and reported:

“Platina is a metallic sand that is sui gneris which can be very pernicious in the world because it mixes easily with gold and because, although by chemistry it is easy to find the means of recognizing the fraud and of separating the two metals, since this means would be available only in the hands of a few people and as cupidity is a general malady, temptation seductive, the means of deceiving easy and in everybody’s reach, there can be great danger in letting platina loose in commerce.”

Platina was thus prohibited for export from New Granada to Europe. That did not stop the fraudulent use of patina for gold, however. Colonial escudos and doubloons have been found made of platinum, then gilded to look like gold.

All of the gold output from Choco went to two mints, at Santa Fe de Bogota and Popayan, where a second, final separation of the metals was done. The excess platinum was thrown into the Bogota River “two leagues” from Santa Fe or into the Cauco, about 1 league from Popayan.

After 1759, samples of platinum were collected from these dumps to be sent to Europe for scientific investigation. Other samples had already reached Europe, either legitimately or through smuggling.

Continued from Part 1
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