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Friday 15 January 2021 LOCAL
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Aruba’s natural product: phosphate

ORANJESTAD — In the 19th layers, six feet thick on av-
century another natural erage, were discovered at
product, besides gold, was Banki Jerome, a bit more
found to be fit for exploita- to the north. Mines were
tion. On Seroe Colorado, at made to bring up the
the utmost south-easterly material. Those provided
tip of the island, guano was enough phosphate for the
found. This limestone, con- next 15 years. Holes were
taining phosphoric acid, drilled by hand into the
originates from bird drop- phosphate and then it was
pings, in this case sea gulls. extracted with explosives.
There was a broad world The exploitation of the
market for phosphate that phosphate caused the
was used as a fertilizer. revenues of the island to
rise considerably and that
The discovery of guano is made it possible to sup-
being credited to J. H. Wa- port the other islands of the
ters Gravenhorst in 1874, colony Curaçao (the Neth-
but it seems that in 1859 erlands Antilles did not yet
already an American, S. R. exist) as well. In the years of
Kimball, who was digging exploitation (that went on
guano on the Aves islands, till 1914), 530.060 tons were
had applied for a permit of a few fishermen’s huts phate led to the develop- tilizer. The phosphate com- exported with a total mar-
for exploitation. If it actually before. The activities sur- ment of the settlement of pany had its own tugboat ket value of almost 17 mil-
has come to that, remains rounding the exploitation Sint Nicolaas. First a wood- (the ‘S.S. Phosphate’) and lion guilders. Aruba could
unknown. and exportation of phos- en pier was built in the har- its own pilot to get the ships generate about 4 million
In 1871, guano had also phate led to more and bor and the phosphate safely in and out of the Sint guilders from exportation
been discovered on Klein more huts being built there. was taken there by don- Nicolaasbay. taxes.
Curaçao by the English- It already started to look key. In 1881, new material The time that was need- But in the course of the
man John Godden. His quite like a little village, arrived from England and ed to load a ship was be- years, phosphate exploi-
discovery caused quite a where sailors from the ships New York. The installations ing reduced from 15 to 5 tation became less profit-
hype on de Antillian islands, that came for the phos- that were built then were days. Three- to five hun- able: as the phosphate
a kind of ‘guano mania’. phate came looking for dis- ultramodern for that time. dred tons of phosphate had to be extracted from
On Curaçao too, guano traction ashore. Local labor In the Sint Nicolaasbay, an per day could be handled deeper underground, the
was found and exploited was initially only found with iron landing was built and by the pier. In 1882, about quality became poorer.
by Godden.The phosphate difficulty: that was because that was the most modern 250 men worked in the Furthermore, there was
was very conspicuous by of the rival branch of indus- harbor facility in the whole phosphate industry and strong competition from
its color: yellow to red- try, the exploitation of gold. Caribbean at that time. For the salaries were not bad. good quality phosphate
brown or the color of liver, That’s why forty men were the transport of the phos- People came from all over from Canada. Good and
sometimes green or purple. attracted from Bonaire and phate to the harbor, a six ki- the island to work in the relatively cheap phos-
That’s how Seroe Colorado about twenty bricklayers lometer long narrow gauge phosphate mines; those phate came out of Florida
(the Colored Hill) got its and carpenters from Cura- railway was built and the who lived in the surround- as well and as a result, the
name. çao. Even a group of Ital- phosphate was taken to ings of Noord, had to get global prices went down.
After the discovery of gua- ians was attracted to the the loading berth in trains of on their way by foot or on The APM found out that the
no on Aruba by Graven- island to manage the com- about twenty tip carts and a donkey by Sunday after- expenses to exploit phos-
horst, exploitation was pany; four of them never a steam locomotive. There noon, stayed overnight in phate were too high to be
started by the Aruba left the island: Antonio and it was loaded into sail ships Savaneta to start working able to still be competitive.
Phosphaat Maatschappij Victorio Petrocci, Eugenio that took it to countries like on Monday. The workers Even though the tax rates
(APM), founded in Decem- Falconi and Cajetano Ja- England, France, Germany stayed near the phosphate had been reduced by the
ber of 1879. The center of copucci. They settled at and the United States to be mines all week and slept government, the profits
exportation was San Nico- Tanki Leendert. processed to super phos- in barracks. On Saturdays, continued to go down and
las, which only consisted The exploitation of phos- phate that was used as fer- they worked half day, after finally the expenses could
which they set out to return not be covered anymore.
home on foot or on a don- When World War I broke
key...... out in 1914, the exploita-
Business went well and tion of phosphate became
soon a profit was made very difficult. It was impos-
which allowed paying off sible to get dynamite and
the loans that were made the means of exportation
for the investments. A divi- became worse as a re-
dend could be paid out as sult of the war in Europe.
well. The Aruba Phosphaat
Initially, phosphate was ex- Maatschappij closed down
tracted on Seroe Colorado in August of 1914 and a
and Seroe Culebra. When year later, the company
the supply at the surface was dissolved by its share-
of the hills was exhausted holders. Workers left again
after about fifteen years, and went looking for work
they went on to look for in the surrounding countries
phosphate deeper in the like Venezuela and Colom-
ground. On a depth of 15 bia. Source: www.historia-
to 18 meters, phosphate diaruba.aw. q