The Aroa River ( es, Río Aroa) is a river in northwestern

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. It runs parallel and west of the

Yaracuy River The Yaracuy River is a river of Venezuela. It drains into the Caribbean Sea. See also *List of rivers of Venezuela This is a list of rivers in Venezuela. By drainage basin This list is arranged by drainage basin, with respective tributaries ind ...

. The Aroa River empties into the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

. The river drains part of the Lara-Falcón dry forests ecoregion. In the 16th century it was known that there was gold in the

Yaracuy Yaracuy State ( es, link=no, Estado Yaracuy, ;) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. It is bordered by Falcón in the north, in the west by Lara, in the south by Portuguesa and Cojedes and in the east by Cojedes and Carabobo. Its geography ...

, Santa Cruz and Aroa rivers, and in 1605 gold deposits were found in a small valley leading to the Aroa River. The king gave the

Aroa mines The Aroa mines ( es, Minas de Aroa) were copper mines in the state of Yaracuy, Venezuela. Mining started in 1632, and at the end of the colonial period the mines were owned by the Bolívar family. Simón Bolívar leased the mines to an English c ...

in perpetuity to Dr. Francisco Marín de Narváez and his heirs in exchange for 40,000 pesos. In 1824 the mines were leased to British entrepreneurs who exploited deposits of copper. They used the Aroa River to carry the ore by barge to the coast, where it was loaded onto ships. The town of

Aroa ''Aroa'' is a genus of moths in the subfamily Lymantriinae first described by Francis Walker (entomologist), Francis Walker in 1855. Species are distributed in South Africa, China, throughout India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Java. Description They ...

was the first town in the country to obtain electricity and telephone service. A cableway was built linking the mines to the town.

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* * * * * Rivers of Venezuela {{Venezuela-river-stub