| Output | Developed Reserves | Product | Control | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cerro de Pasco | 72,000,000 | (-) | 4 years | Blister Copper | United States |
| Backus & Johnson | 28,000,000 | (-) | 4 years | Do | Do |
| Huaron (new) | 5,000,000 | (?) | 4 years | Do | French |
| Ore shippers | 5,000,000 | ? | Ore | Local | |
| 110,000,000 | |||||
BOLIVIA
There is one important copper producing locality in Bolivia—Coro Coro, central Bolivia (elevation 12,000 feet). Beds of sandstone carry native copper and veins of sulphides. The mines are owned by French capital. There is no smelter, but concentrates running up to 85 per cent. copper are exported to France for treatment. Production is about 12,000,000 pounds annually. Reserves are large, but the almost inaccessible location of the mines has retarded development. Recently, there has been more activity, a flotation concentrator having been installed.
Some of the Bolivian tin and silver mines produce small amounts of copper, but outside of Coro Coro total copper production is insignificant.
VENEZUELA
The Aroa Mines, an English syndicate, owns a copper mine and smelter producing low-grade matte. The property is located along the railroad which terminates at the port of Tucacas. In 1917 the output was 3,500,000 pounds. The product was shipped to the United States and refined and sold there by L. Vogelstein & Co.
ARGENTINA
There are some copper prospects in the extreme western portion of the country, which are really extensions from the Chilean copper-producing areas. One company, Famatina, Ltd., is an English concern which has had an unfortunate career. The company operates the only copper smelter in Argentina, a small affair that mines irregularly. At last accounts a few hundred tons of blister copper was the annual output; this has always been shipped to England, but recently attempts have been made to ship to New York. This blister is exceedingly rich in silver (6 per cent. silver).
AFRICA
Africa is a copper producer of growing importance, almost entirely because of the development of one group of deposits (Katanga), which overshadows all others to such an extent that the African situation is almost completely described by a discussion of the properties of the Tanganyika Concession, Ltd. The mines of this company yield now three-quarters of the copper production of Africa, and their importance in the future will be still greater.