The old and the new Peru

by Marie Robinson Wright

The Inca Mining Company established headquarters at Tirapata, on the Southern railway between Juliaca and Cuzco, and immediately began to develop their mining property. A concession was obtained from the Peruvian government, under which the company built a wagon road from Tirapata to Santo Domingo, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. In return for opening up the country in this way, the company received about two thousand acres for every mile of wagon road completed. The route lies almost due north for seventy miles, from Tirapata to Crucero, passing the small towns of Asillo and San Anton, in the midst of excellent grazing lands for sheep and alpacas. Crucero, which was once the capital of Carabaya province, is also the centre of a pastoral district. A few miles beyond Crucero the road crosses the Aricoma Pass at an altitude of sixteen thousand feet, and then begins the descent of the eastern slope of the Andes to Limbani, which marks the beginning of the timber line and the limit of established government authority. From this point the journey is made at times through the virgin forest and always through a region little frequented by the white man. Agualani Station is the next stopping place, where travellers find sleeping accommodations. After leaving this place, the road crosses the Inambari River at La Oroya, over a bridge three hundred feet long, and a few hours’ riding brings one to Santo Domingo. The administration house of the company at Santo Domingo is built of solid mahogany and fitted up with all modern comforts. Here in the heart of the forest, hundreds of miles from a railway, are to be found the conveniences of electric lights, hot baths, electric fans, and other comforts supposed to belong only to the favored residents of a great metropolis. The employés have a tennis court, and a telephone connects Santo Domingo with Tirapata, which has telegraphic communication with the other cities of the republic and, through them, with the outside world. Modern mining machinery has been put up at Santo Domingo, at great cost of labor and money; three years were consumed in getting the stamp mill to the mines. A few miles beyond Santo Domingo the rubber country begins, through which the company has built a road to the Madre de Dios, as elsewhere described. In the same region in which the Inca Mining Company’s properties are located are the mines of Montebello and the Lavaderos de Oro, famous in colonial times. The Lavaderos de Oro mines are in Carabaya, the streams of which are nearly all gold-bearing. The Rinconada Mining Company of North America, with a capital of two million dollars, is working rich properties in the districts of Poto and Quiaca, province of Sandia.

There is not a single Department of Peru in which gold has not been found, though in many districts its mining is still among the primitive industries, the Indians washing it out of the streams that drain their communidades, and using the nuggets and gold dust as a medium of exchange. It is not unusual for an Indian of the Marañon, Sandia, Urubamba, or other valleys, to offer a little sack of gold nuggets in payment for his tobacco and similar luxuries purchased in the stores of interior towns. A curious process of placer-mining has long existed among the Indians, which is supposed to be the origin of one of their popular sayings that “in Peru one can sow stones and harvest gold.” It is still in vogue in some districts, and consists in laying flat stones along the bed of a gold-bearing river during the dry season, in such a way that, when the rains come and the mountain streams bring down in their current the precious gravel, these nuggets are caught in the spaces between the stones and held there. When the river falls, or disappears, as it does in many cases during the dry season, the Indian sower of stones reaps his harvest of gold.

OLD CHURCH IN THE MINING TOWN OF CAILLOMA.

The question of transportation has hitherto been such a very important factor in determining whether mining properties were worth developing or not, that some rich deposits have been allowed to remain untouched, and regions known to abound in valuable metals have been only partly explored, on account of the difficulty and expense attending any effort to penetrate beyond a certain radius, accessible to the railways. In this connection, the work of the Corps of Mining Engineers has proved of inestimable value, their surveys extending to every region, so that they are rapidly effacing from the map of Peru its Territorio inexplorado. Every expedition sent into the interior returns with fresh information regarding the country’s mineral resources; and deposits, hitherto unknown to exist, have been brought to light under the investigations of scientific commissions.

MINERS ARRIVING AT AN INN IN THE SIERRA.

In colonial days, Peru was famous for its quicksilver deposits, and the mine of Santa Barbara in the Department of Huancavelica, was the centre of this industry, which was of great service in facilitating the amalgamation of silver ores. The history of Huancavelica is one of the most interesting pages in the mining records of Peru, the quicksilver mines of this region being, in the time of the viceroyalty, the richest in the world. Cinnabar has been proved to exist in abundance for thirty miles around the Santa Barbara mine, in as many as fifty hills of the neighborhood. Veins of this red sulphuret of mercury are also found in the Departments of Cajamarca, Huánuco, Junín, Ayacucho, Cuzco, and Puno, and it has been worked in various mines. The mineral production of Huancavelica is undergoing a revival, and a new era of prosperity is dawning for this historic district.

The discovery of large deposits of bituminous and anthracite coal is regarded as of particular importance in a country where it is required so generally for mining purposes. The exploitation of this mineral is just beginning to show results, the mines of Goillarisquisga being the most important. Anthracite coal is found in Ancash, La Libertad, and other departments; in Cuzco are beds of coal containing the trunks of trees perfectly carbonized. Along the lower banks of the Ucayali River, and in various districts of Puno, lignite exists in considerable quantities. Peat is abundant, especially in Junín, where it is known as champa. It is used a great deal throughout this region, and is a combustible of great value.

With gold, silver, copper, and coal as the basis of her mineral wealth, Peru has numerous other deposits which, once developed, must yield a large revenue. Already the petroleum wells of Tumbes, Piura, and Puno give promise of producing great wealth, and new discoveries of this liquid bitumen are continually being made. It is found at Chimbote and near Casma,—both in Ancash Department,—and it abounds in the district of Palpa, in Ica. Jauja, Huancavelica, and Cuzco also have petroleum deposits, and there are evidences of its presence in several other districts. Foreign capital is already invested in this field, which is apparently of vast productiveness. The two principal centres of the industry at present are in the northern coast region—especially at Tumbes and Piura—and in the vicinity of Like Titicaca, in the district of Pusi, Department of Puno. There are two petroleum refineries in Peru, and these are but the forerunners of more extensive establishments. The Titicaca Oil Company sank eight wells in the Department of Puno, in five of which oil was struck, and the industry has attracted the attention of capitalists who are prepared to develop it on a large scale.