The property at Casapalca also is controlled by the Cerro de Pasco Company. In one mine there, a 5000 foot adit cuts the vein 2500 feet below the outcrop; other adits are higher. The ore is sent to the smelter by an aerial tram. The output is 2500 tons a month, two per cent copper, and 40 ounces silver. The Casapalca smelter has three blast furnaces and four barrel type converters. The flue dust is briquetted and returned. It does custom work for independent miners, and in 1916 treated 175,000 dry tons, producing nearly 20,000,000 pounds of fine copper, 3,000,000 ounces of silver, and 3587 of gold; the capacity is now increased 50 per cent. A new smelter has been erected at Yauli by the Company. The Cerro de Pasco property is said to be the most costly ever developed; the ores are refractory. With the cost production eight cents a pound on an output of over 70,000,000 tons a year, $4.20 a share is earned on 14 cent copper, double on 20 cent copper. The Corporation’s income in 1916 was $3,676,000, about 12 per cent on the investment; about 8 per cent was paid in dividends, not an undue amount on what was considered by many a very large risk.
Another great copper property, also owned by Americans, is at Yauricocha, about 50 miles south of Yauli, and west of the Oroya-Huancayo Railway. Four hundred and fifty thousand tons averaging 16 per cent copper and 2¹⁄₂ ounces of silver per ton, five per cent of the probable ore in sight, are now ready for stoping. The smelter and blast furnace have an output of 15-18 tons of blister copper daily. Native labor of fair quality may be obtained at one fifth of the cost in the United States, while the ore is said to be six times as rich as most of that in the West. Considerable water power is available. An automobile road has been constructed from the station Pachacayo 60 miles to the mine.
There are other rich copper deposits in Peru, in Huancavelica, Cuzco, Arequipa, Ica, Apurimac, Junín, Ancash, Cajamarca; but as yet none of them is in full production. Ferrobamba in the Department of Cuzco, 45 miles west of the city, at an altitude of 13,000 feet, is one of the largest properties, with 207 claims over 225 acres. The concession includes water rights; 120,000 horse power is available. The ore can be worked by steam shovels. One field is estimated to contain 12,000,000 tons of ore, 6 per cent copper, 3 ounces silver and 9 grams gold. Its inaccessibility has so far prevented extensive operations. The Anaconda Copper Company owns a copper property in the Department of Arequipa. Copper matte is exported from Queruvilca, Otuzco, Santiago de Chuco, and Cajabamba.
Coal, contrary to earlier supposition, is now known to be widespread in Peru. The astonishing figures of 6¹⁄₄ billion tons have recently been given as the estimated supply, over 4 billion of these in Tumbes, a quantity hitherto unsuspected, perhaps unverified. However, coal deposits are certainly scattered along the great Andes Range and in the foothills, mainly in the central and northern sections. Within 100 miles of the coast are millions of tons of anthracite coal near Cupisnique and Huayday; millions more back of Chimbote and along the Huailas Valley, anthracite, semi-anthracite, and bituminous with many veins 4¹⁄₂-13 feet thick. Higher in the plateau region are deposits of soft coal near Oyón, Cerro de Pasco, and at Jatunhuasi. The de Pasco coal, 35 per cent carbon, must be washed before coking in the smelter. Forty per cent of the material is rejected. The best coal is used on the Railway. It costs $2.92 at the mine. The Company has no more than is needed for their smelters and railway. Better coal is found at Jatunhuasi 30 miles from Pachacayo, on the road to the copper mines at Yauricocha, the same company owning both. This coal, 45 per cent carbon, makes better coke which now sells at $25 a ton at Pachacayo, previously at $40. This deposit, estimated at 40,000,000 tons, is said to be the largest known in Peru of high grade coking coal, and the only one capable of large scale mining without pumping.
At Paracas in the Department of Ica are veins near the sea. Capital for working the coal mines has not hitherto been available; and land transport a few miles by llamas has been more expensive than carriage by sea a few thousand. The need is imperative; and foreign capitalists should and no doubt soon will aid in the development of these rich resources. The annual production is now estimated as 400,000 tons.
Gold and silver are always interesting, and there is still plenty in Peru. In 1916 about $1,200,000 worth of gold was mined, though accurate statistics are impossible, on account of the difficulty of estimating the quantity got out by the Indians. A Peruvian engineer estimates the product from the Inambari River through their primitive methods as $100,000 yearly. They build a floor in the river, and the next season wash out the gold sand in the crevices. There are auriferous deposits in Puno and Cuzco; both veins and placers at Sandia and Carabaya, and at Quispicanchis and Paucartambo. Gold coinage in 1918 amounted to nearly $3,000,000. The Aporama Goldfields property near the Hauri Hauri River at Sandia, Puno, has placer deposits covering 1277 acres. It was just reaching production stage when the War opened and interfered. The New Chuquitambo Company has 142 acres in the Cerro de Pasco Province. The Inca Mining Company, American, has the Santo Domingo Mines on the Inambari River, now in the Madre de Dios Department. From Tirapata on the Juliaca-Cuzco Railway, there is a wagon road for some miles, then a mule trail over the Aricoma Pass, 16,500 feet, and down to an altitude of 7000 feet. Even with the difficulties attending the transportation of machinery and supplies $8,000,000 have been produced without exhausting the deposit. The Cochasayhuas mine in Cotabambas yields $20,000 a month. Seventy per cent of the gold production is said to come from Puno.
Silver. Of silver mines the most important is reported to be that of the Anglo-French Company near the port of Huarmey. Dividends have averaged from 20 to 25 per cent per annum. Possibly rivalling this, are mines farther south at an altitude up to 16,500 feet, the reduction works at 15,200 feet in the Cerro Quespesisa, 120 miles back of Pisco. Less favorably located, but one of the most productive districts in Peru, in the last 50 years it has yielded 6,000,000 ounces of silver with crude processes and a loss of over 25 per cent. The fuel used is taquia (llama dung) of which 1500 tons a year are burned. The temperature in the middle of the day is 45°. At that altitude there is no great difference in the seasons in the torrid zone. Supplies are brought from Pisco, a four and a half days’ journey.
The Morococha mines produced in 1916 (estimated) 1,500,000 ounces. The selected ore sent from Colquipocro to a Liverpool smelter averaged for some years $200 a ton, while the thousands of tons on the dump run $80 a ton. Silver is usually found with either copper or lead, in Peru oftener with the latter, while gold is in veins of ferruginous quartz, generally with other metals as silver and copper, as well as in sand, alluvial deposits, and in nuggets. Other silver mines operated are in Cajamarca, Ancash, at Yauli near Oroya, at Cailloma in Arequipa 100 miles north of Sumbay, and elsewhere.
Vanadium is found near Cerro de Pasco, the property of Americans. From 70 to 80 per cent of the world’s supply is believed to be in Peru, the second largest stock in Colorado. It is of great value for certain purposes in steel construction. The Peruvian ore, roasted before shipping, contains 25 per cent of vanadium. Three thousand five hundred tons were exported in 1918.
Quicksilver. In the old mines of Huancavelica there is resumption of work through the activity of Señor Fernandini, a prominent Peruvian mine owner who has a smelter near that of Cerro de Pasco. He has been clearing out old tunnels, and driving new ones across, to cut the ores 700 feet below the old surface workings. A hydro-electric plant is on trial for the furnaces. The mines are high on the mountain above the town Huancavelica. The ore is a bright red cinnabar, mercury sulphide, impregnating clean sandstone uniformly, or along planes or fractures.