Patino, Tin and Bolivia
Curtis, Charlotte
LISBON, Aug. 12-Potugal isn't exactly agog over the impending visit of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, but for a small proud country with a minuscule aristocracy, it's pretty...
...CTS also has a dominant position in the Malayan and Northern Nigerian tin industries...
...We have the swimming pool for the daytime," Mrs...
...We like to alt here," she said, "or out on the terrace...
...N.Y...
...They usually have cotS among the antique silver and the orange tuberous begonias in the blue and white Por- tuguese living room up- stairs or in the black and gold library modeled after the one at Coimbra...
...CTS, a holding company, processes approximately 40% of the capitalist world's tin production...
...We like to give the serv- ants some quiet and peace," Mrs...
...Source: The New York Times August 13, 1969 More on Patino, tin and Bolivia on next page.-18THE PATINOS, TIN AND BOLIVIA Over 60% of Bolivia's export earnings derive from tin...
...The crystal in the little wall chandeliers glistens even when the room is shuttered against the sun...
...m not very good," she id...
...and Mrs...
...Patio said...
...Patifio said...
...Patiflo explained...
...The furniture is red or blue velvet witi gilt...
...12-Potugal isn't exactly agog over the impending visit of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, but for a small proud country with a minuscule aristocracy, it's pretty excited...
...But the family holdings are not confined to tin...
...Ad even though he has never been to China, Japan, the So, viet Union -or India, he is upl on what's happening there and in the rest of the worid...
...Manoel Vmihas, the beer baron who raises fighting bulls that appear in Spanish and Portuguese rings, talks of a banquet at his rustic log hunting lodge with three little musical groups...
...Patiflo and his guest, play pingpong...
...One variation Is to climb into the Rolls-Royce (one of perhaps a half dozen in Por- tugal), and go into nearby Cascais Estoril or Sintr to have dinner at a restaurant...
...We are in Malaya and NI- gerla now,"' he said...
...particularly if it has to do with tin...
...holdings -- for example, the Maryland Racing Association...
...Is a sport his wife does her best to avoid...
...Opening the gates is only the be"nmg...
...The walls are one great tapestry after another...
...Beyond the fountain, the giant ardinieres filled with pale pink geran- lums, and almost-as far down -across the fowe gardens, the orchards and the stables -- as the eye can ee, all Is Patifio property...
...It's miles before the Patiflos' private 16th-century chapel ap...
...One of the principal families whose vast mine holdings were nationalized were the Patinos (see article, page 17...
...vrye never learned...
...Patfiho did mention the room a a setting for after-dinner coffee...
...One Wall Street commodity broker being interviewed on Patiiexclaimed: "Bolivia and tin are interesting, but if you really want to get into his operations you should check out his U.S...
...But Mrs...
...in Great Britain...
...At night, the indirect light- ing shimmers over the rub- ber trees, ferns and ivy inside the cave...
...CTS), Williams, Harvey & Co...
...We try to arrange the program with va- riety...
...But it is Mr...
...he owns that, you know...
...His handsome French-Spanish wife is one of the world's great hostesses...
...Patlilo is the affable Bolivian tin king...
...They like the...
...The terrace is the place to survey the estate...
...native cuisine...
...Behind them are nothing but trees, formal gardens and a driveway...
...The paddles come out, and Mr...
...tury French drawing room, but that room is more than adequately supplied...
...But these excursions are sometimes planned for an- other reason...
...Sometimes dancing in the evening or cards, or the movies...
...Patito, who wears baby blue slacks, sky blue espadrilles and white silk shirts with little blue polka dots, likes to explain that the house is one of few to have central heating and that the heat comes up through the floors He can name the flowers in the garden in at leatt three languages (not includ- ing Portuguese...
...It would be repetitious," Mrs...
...While Comibol runs the tin mining operations in the country, it has no smelting facilities or marketing network...
...pears on one side of the road, the swimming pool on the other, and then finally the big white house wIth the red tiled roof...
...Ricondo Espirito Santo Silva, the grande dame of the banking family, thinks maybe she will see her old friends at a luncheon...
...And the area becomes a private nightclub...
...He has no such plans for Por.- tugal...
...During the day, special lights play over the greenery to make it grow...
...For those interested in pursuing this story, the nerve center for the Patino empire is reportedly Patino Mines and Enterprises Consolidated, Inc., based in Toronto, Canada...
...The major portion of Bolivia's high grade tin concentrates are smelted by a subsidiary of Patino-controlled Consolidated Tin Smelters, Ltd...
...Times, August 3, 1968...
...And on Friday, they're flinging open the black gates to their vast Quinta Patifio to the former King of England and his American-born wife...
...The movies are shown in their theater in the main house and the fare often is American, but movies, which have to be flown in, are rare- ly shown two nights in a row...
...No extravaganzas are on the Patos' agenda for the Windsors and, according to Mr Patifio, the days should be quiet, quiet, quiet...
...Antenor Patiflo, at whose country estate the Windsors are staying for two weeks, who are expected to organize and deliver the most glamour...
...The Patios, who never seem to be at a loss for set- tings, have also been known to have coffee at the Grotto, an immense cave carved in the rock on which the 41- year-old main house was built...
...A dance floor goes over the earth...
...The Patinos, however, have not lost complete control over Bolivian tin...
...Our Bolivian mines were national' tzed," But not before he inherited one fortune and built himself another one, nor before i had given his country a hosi pital and established a stu- dent scholarship foundation...
...The Patios, who have houses in Bolivia and Paris and a comfortable mill near Fontainebleau, are convinced that they live simply here, and in their elegant way they do...
...What the Patifios o w.no their exquisite drawing room is something of a mystery...
...Yet they and their guests have only to raise a hand to summon one of the quinta's 200 employes...
...The Door There is no vermeil, no bronze dorn nor any gold until you reach the 18th-cen...
...The dance floor is replaced by a green table...
...If they wanted to, the Patifos could also have their coffee--or a seven-course dinner for that matter-not just In the spacious dining room but in the arched white marble hallway beside the swimming pool or at the pool's own leafy green and white pavilion...
...Mrs...
...In 1952 the "revolutionary" MNR (Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario) government nationalized Bolivia's principal tin mines and today they are operated by a state-owned corporation, Comibol...
...Its kitchen is next to the bowling alley...
...He's glad it gave up his yacht ("the seas were too rough for me...
...An or- chestra takes up its position in the corner...
...Jorge de Mello, wife of the industrial tycoon, says of course she will do something...
Vol. 3 • July 1969 • No. 4
