
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 29, 1994                   TAG: 9411010033
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA                                 LENGTH: Short

WILL GREED ERUPT NEAR GOLD FOUNT?

Officials fear a rush of gold-hungry prospectors to a volcano in southern Colombia that a U.S. scientist claims is spewing a pound of gold each day.

About 45 pounds of gold from the Galeras Volcano become embedded in surrounding rock each year, according to the study by Fraser Goff of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

But a Colombian expert claims the volcano releases much less gold and in fragments so small they are of no commercial value. ``I fear that when this gets out, all of Pasto will go running up the mountain,'' said Libaniel Casas, referring to the city of 350,000 at the base of the volcano. Casas is director of the government mining and geology center in Narino state, where the volcano is located.

Access to the volcano has been restricted since it erupted Jan. 13, 1993, killing nine people.

Associated Press

by CNB