Industrial and commercial South AmericaPeck, Annie S. (Annie Smith)
History
Industrial and commercial South America
Peck, Annie S. (Annie Smith)
South America; South America -- Economic conditions -- 1918-
The Cerro de Pasco Company has spent about $30,000,000 in acquiring
properties here and at Morococha, in constructing smelters, railways,
buildings for employees, and in developing the properties, from which
handsome returns are now obtained. The property of the Cerro de Pasco
Mining Company consists of 730 mining claims and 108 coal mining
claims. The reserves exceed 3,000,000 tons of copper ore, one estimate
is 75,000,000. Nearly every claim carries ore with gold, silver,
copper, lead, zinc, and cobalt. High silver values exist to 100 feet
deep, sometimes running to thousands of ounces a ton, deeper are silver
copper ores, and lower still little silver and more copper. The old
open mines are 100-300 feet deep. The mines are very wet, especially
below 400 feet. A drainage canal begun by Meiggs in 1877 was completed
in 1907. The new workings include five shafts and two tunnels of two
miles each. The shafts have openings at four levels, the bottom 410
feet. Waste is used for filling, as timber is dear. The smelter has
five blast furnaces, each running 300 tons daily. A converter is
in another building. A hydro-electric plant completed in 1913 cost
$1,000,000. There is a 10 mile ditch and pipe line with one 750 foot
fall and a second of 200 feet. The transmission line, 70 miles, serves
Morococha and Pasco. There is a coke plant near the smelter and a
brick plant of great value. The coal mines are at Goyllarisquisga and
Quishuarcancha, 21 and 11 miles respectively. The coal is not very
good, averaging 35 per cent carbon, but answers the purpose.
The Corporation owns 12 mines at Morococha and rents others. The
deepest shaft is 750 feet. Several drainage tunnels are required.
The production, 12,000 tons a month, was expected to be increased to
16,000. The ore of the several mines runs 5, 14, 15, and in one mine
20 per cent copper continuously, the 14 per cent with 14-70 ounces
of silver per ton. The ore averages 7 per cent copper and 10 ounces
silver. The mines have produced 20,000,000 pounds of copper a year, one
third of the de Pasco Company’s output. Morococha is ten miles from
Ticlio, the highest point on the main line of the Central Railway; the
ore is sent to a smelter at Casapalca, altitude 13,600 feet, ten miles
farther down.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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