The metalliferous line unites two important mineral centres — Guanajuato and Hidalgo — having a mean direction of north-west 45 degrees south-east. Near this line are the most important and best known mining sections in the country — Zacatecas, Fresnillo, Sombrerete, Durango, San Dimas, Guarisamey, Gavilanes, Aguascalientes, Querétaro, and states of Mexico and Oajaca; near it also, on the west, are the mining districts belonging to Sonora and Sinaloa, Bolaños, El Oro, Tlalpujahua, Angangues, Sultepec, Temascaltepec, Zacualpan, and Tasco; and on the east, Batopilas, Catorce, Ramos, Charcas, San Pedro, Guadalcázar, Zimapan, El Chico, Pachuca, and Real del Monte.[1]
The states of Guerrero, Mexico, and Oajaca have deposits of native gold, respectively in the districts of Tepantitlan, Oro, and San Antonio. There are auriferous placers in several localities of Chihuahua and Sonora, and in Ixtapa, of the state of Mexico. The silver of several districts contains gold. Of such are Guadalupe y Calvo, Guadalupe de los Reyes, and Parral in Chihuahua, twenty-three in Durango, the Tasco in Guerrero; most of the silver mines in Guanajuato have gold, chiefly those of Rayas, Monte de San Nicolás, Sirena, and Nayal; Pachuca and Zimapan in Hidalgo, Etzatlan in Jalisco, four in Mexico, Angangueo and Tlalpujahua in Michoacan, Ixtlan and Peñoles in Oajaca, Tetela del Oro in Puebla, Doctor in Querétaro, San Pedro in San Luis Potosí, seven in Sinaloa, Promontorios and Minas Nuevas in Sonora, and nine in Zacatecas. There is native silver in the districts of Batopilas in Chihuahua, Guanajuato, Pa- .
- ↑ The prolongation of this line northward runs to the E. of Guaimas through numerous and little known groups. Ramirez, Riqueza Min. Méx., 63.
See Historic Mines of Mexico, by Charles B. Dahlgren, machinist and mining engineer, a 4° of 220 pages, with engravings and maps, issued at New York in 1883. This book is what it purports to be, a review of the mines worked in Mexico during the last three centuries, compiled from the best sources, and based upon a personal experience of several years as a superintendent of mines in Mexico. Dahlgren has been enabled to bring into an available form a large mass of useful data. The maps show the mining districts and their relation with the lines of railway
