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a8    local
                  Friday 13 december 2024
            The Bushiribana Gold Mill Ruins and its history






















            (Oranjestad)—The  Bushiri-   Under the leadership of Mr.
            bana Gold Mill Ruins is one  Paulus  Printz,  a  three-year
            of the most visited places by  search was conducted on
            tourists on the island, as it lies  Aruba, to no avail. Though
            along the northern coast line  they found some gold, it was
            near the mini pool and on the  enough to motivate a further
            way  to  the  Natural  Bridge.  search, and the assignment
            Despite its seemingly plain  was  discontinued  by  Printz                                                          and  carve  out  gold  from
            appearance,  this  ruin  rep-  himself.                                                                             the rocks. Aruba Island Gold
            resents one of the most im-                                                                                         Mining Company Ltd. was no
            portant histories of the island:  It wasn’t until 100 years lat-                                                    different, but used a unique
            The Aruban Gold Rush.        er,  in  1824,  when  a  young                                                         method that involved grind-
                                         boy found a lump of gold                                                               ing the rocks and letting the
            Built in 1872 by English com-  while  out  herding  his  fa-                                                        dust be blown away by the
            pany Aruba Island Gold Min-  ther’s sheep. His father took                                                          strong northeast wind, leav-
            ing Company Ltd, the gold  it to a local merchant who                                                               ing clumps of gold behind.
            mill at Bushiribana was con-  then sold the lump for $70.                                                           The  next  step  was  melting
            structed in the area where  Unbeknownst  to  the  boy                                                               the  gold  and  letting  it  at-
            most  gold  was  found  by  and  his  father,  they  quite                                                          tach to quicksilver in order
            locals. The story of gold on  literally struck gold, and as                            gold, as long as they sold it to   to obtain pure gold. All these
            Aruba actually dates back  word got out, a gold fever  At the same time, the Aruban    the government. However,     processes were done at the
            to 1725, when a first explo-  spread  among  the  locals  government took immediate    after some time, the govern-  Bushiribana Gold Mill.
            ration for gold on the island  who  started  searching  for  actions, and informed Cura-  ment decided to implement
            was  commissioned  by  the  more gold. About 25 pounds  cao that gold was found. At    stricter rules and banned lo-  The gold mill itself had a short
            Dutch West India Company.  worth was found.               first, everyone could look for   cal search parties.      life-span:  only  10  years  in
                                                                                                                                service, but its structure re-
                                                                                                   Over the years, concession-  mained relatively solid till this
                                                                                                   holding had seen different   day, and is now a historical
                                                                                                   companies  from  around      remnant. q
                                                                                                   the world, all of which used
                                                                                                   primitive  methods  to  dig   Sources: Etnia Nativa & gold-
                                                                                                                                      mineranch.com.

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