of gold, silver, copper and zinc from the San Juancito mountains. The Rosario had an enormous impact on the local landscape. Entire woods were sacrificed to satisfy the large amount of timber needed to build the underground installations, buildings and houses. Long tracks were opened to transport wagons, carriages, minerals and men. The Rosario Mining Company was rumoured to be involved in the change of the Honduras capital from Comayagua to its rival city of Tegucigalpa, which is closer to the mine. The then Honduran President, Marco Aurelio Soto, had shares in the firm. The company reached its peak during the 1920s when more than three thousand miners worked in the mine, and there was an American consulate at El Rosario. The American firm built housing, offices, terraces, tunnels and several routes which cross the mountain region. Perhaps as a result of the company's involvement in Honduras, the area became the first to have a hydroelectric plant and telegraph built, as well as the first Pepsi bottling plant in Central America. The adjacent town of San Juancito had electrical power before the capital city of Tegucigalpa. Extraction in the mine ceased in 1954, after 75 years, due to a general strike. The mining company closed and thousands of people left the area in search of work. The intervening half-century allowed the forest to regrow, and much of the Rosario mine workings are now within La Tigra National Park. Mining in Nicaragua Bonanza In 1935, NYHRMC acquired an option on some gold mining properties in Nicaragua. These properties were the Bonanza Group of Mines, and those adjoining belonging to the Eden Mining Company and Tunky Transportation and Power Company, controlled by Benj. C. Warnick & Company, Limited, of Wilmington, Delaware. The original option was obtained August 2, 1935, but was not to become operative until title to the Bonanza Group has been perfected, which was not accomplished until June 12, 1936, and the original option was then merged into one bearing date of July 15, 1936, providing for an examination period of eighteen months, subject to extension under certain conditions. Associated with NYHRMC in the procurement of, and all rights under the option, were the American Smelting and Refining Company (53.9%), Premier Gold Mining Company (10%), Terra Nova Properties Limited (5%), H.A. Guess (1.1%). NYHRMC kept 30% of shares. There were also been acquired by purchase the properties of the Constancia