PERU: RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES
AGRICULTURE
While for centuries Peru has been celebrated as a land of marvelous
mineral riches, especially of gold and silver, nevertheless, in spite
of her desert shore, her bleak table-land, and her undeveloped montaña,
like California, her chief wealth is in her agriculture. What the
figures say about the exports is easily ascertainable; but though
corroborating this statement they do not tell all the story, since most
of the mineral production is exported, while the greater part of the
agricultural stays at home. Of the latter, sugar is the leading product.
=Sugar= grows along the coast and, where opportunity offers, up to
a height of 4500 feet; in the montaña to a height of 6000 feet. At
present most of it is raised near the coast. The Chicama Valley, famed
for its splendid estates, produces more sugar than the entire Island of
Porto Rico, and this of the finest quality. In the temperate, equable
climate, the cane matures early and may be cut all the year around.
It is unusually rich in sucrose. Some estates are 15-20 miles square,
producing 15,000-30,000 tons each; 50-60 tons of cane to the acre is
quite usual. The cane is cut and ground from 18 to 24 months after
planting, and being cut throughout the year instead of during four or
five months only, the same amount of work may be done with far less
machinery and fewer laborers. In places a two months suspension is
made, when the river is full, to attend to irrigation and to clean or
repair machinery, etc.
The cane has more than 14 per cent sucrose, often 16 or 17 per cent.
The returns have nowhere been surpassed; the production to the acre is
double that of Cuba, where the average is 23-24 tons, in Peru 45-50
tons. At Cartavio, an estate of 29,000 acres in the Chicama Valley,
they once cut 79.8 long tons of cane per acre from a field of 85 acres.
This had 15.24 per cent sucrose and gave 12 tons of sugar an acre, a
probable record. The grinding capacity is 1000 metric tons in 23 hours.
In 1917 they ground 240,000 tons making 34,000 tons of sugar, mostly
white granulated. The Casa Grande in the same valley, said to be the
largest estate in the world, has a population of 11,000. Churches,
schools, hospitals, and “movies” are provided for the work people, and
the luxuries of modern life for owners and superintendents. In the
montaña sugar cane is said to grow to a height of 30 feet and once
planted to persist for a century. One writer speaks of two or three
crops from one planting, but nine years without replanting is not
unusual on the coast.
In the year 1915-16, 100,000 tons were exported from Salaverry, more
the year following; half as much from the smaller port of Huanchaco
near by. Production in Peru reached 400,000 tons in 1918. The
plantation Tambo Real, on the Santa River near Chimbote, was recently
sold for $1,750,000. Just back of the port is plenty of good sugar
land, now desert but easily irrigable. As the nitrates have never been
washed out of the land by rain, the soil is of extraordinary fertility;
with irrigation the cane receives the precise amount of water required
and at the right season. Back of Samanco are two large sugar estates,
one belonging to the British Sugar Company, which has a larger at
Cañete in the south, producing long ago 30,000 tons a year. One estate
had years ago 22 miles of tramway which was to be increased. In some
places small farmers owning or renting land sell their cane to sugar
mills. Most of the estates have the best of machinery. In 1911 $100,000
worth of sugar machinery was imported into one Department, Lambayeque.
Labor is cheaper than in Cuba, formerly 60 cents a day, but with
housing and other perquisites. Much sugar has been exported to Chile;
recently to Europe and the United States. Some years ago sugar could be
sold at a port at a profit for 1.5 cents a pound, more recently at 2.5
cents. There is still a field for investment in desert land, suitable
for those with sufficient capital to arrange for irrigation. About
600,000 acres are now devoted to sugar.
=Cotton.= Native to the country is cotton, and Peru has its own special
variety, _Gossypium Peruvianum_. It is so soft and fine that it is
called vegetable wool, and it is much used for weaving underwear,
stockings, etc., with wool, which it even improves, as the cloth
is less liable to shrinkage than all wool. This variety grows to a
height of 10-16 feet, giving a first small crop in eight months, but
not reaching its best until the sixth year. It holds out well through
drought, requiring but one irrigation yearly. The trees are planted 15
feet apart, the interspace being occupied with vegetables and corn.
No ploughing is necessary and two crops a year are obtained. With the
names full rough and moderate rough it is mixed with wool for textile
manufacture. Piura is its special habitat, but it grows well in Ica at
the south.
The Egyptian, the Sea Island, or the ordinary American are preferred
by some growers on account of their earlier development. The Egyptian
is cultivated in Ica from the shore to 60 miles inland, also in Lima;
the Sea Island and the Peruvian Mitafifi, similar to the Egyptian,
near Huacho and Supe; the smooth cotton from ordinary American seed
anywhere. The Egyptian, also called Upland, grows to about four feet,
yielding two or three years, beginning six months after sowing. It
needs several waterings, but has an advantage in being free from weevil
blight. This and the ordinary American are the most popular varieties.
Peru is twelfth among world producers, needing only more irrigated
land for greatly increased production. There is water enough but labor
and capital have been wanting. All conditions are favorable as in
Egypt. The length of the various cotton fibres is given as: Sea Island,
1.61 inches; Egyptian, 1.41; Peruvian, 1.30; Brazilian, 1.17; American
upland, 1.02; Indian, 0.8.
=Coffee.= An important product is coffee, the best said to be grown in
the sierra region; but the finest I ever drank was raised on a small
plantation back of Samanco, where it was roasted, ground, and made
within the hour, of course pulverized and dripped as universally in
South America. In the deep valleys at the east also, excellent coffee
is grown: in Puno, in the Chanchamayo and the Perené valleys, called
the _montaña_ by the sierra people, in Huánuco farther north, in the
Paucartambo valley of Cuzco south, as well as in the Pacasmayo and
other coast sections. Five hundred plants are set to the acre, 800 in
the Perené, which produce each 2 pounds annually. Even with a low price
for coffee its production is profitable there, in spite of the one
time $60 a ton freight rate to Callao; large profits are made at good
prices. After supplying home consumption there is a considerable export.
=Cacao.= The production of cacao, which grows wild in the _montaña_,
should be greatly increased. The Department of Cuzco produces a
particularly fine article with exquisite taste and aroma, which brings
a higher price than that of Brazil or Ecuador, though little known
outside of the country. In the Perené Valley a plantation of 200,000
trees has been set out. Vast tracts in the Departments of Amazonas and
San Martín and in the Province of Jaen are also suited to its growth.
=Coca.= The culture of coca is important, but more limited as to future
development since its medicinal use should not be greatly increased
and its general use not at all. The plant is a shrub, usually six feet
high, cultivated in the districts of Otuzco (the most important) and
Huamachuco (Libertad), Huanta (Ayacucho), Cuzco, and Huánuco. It grows
best in valleys of 3000 to 7000 feet altitude, where the temperature
varies from 60° to 85°, in clayey but not marshy ground, with iron but
no salt. It needs frequent rains and humidity. Three or four crops
may be picked annually, the first in 18 months; the yield continues
40 years. Care is needed in picking the leaves and in drying. A great
quantity is consumed by the Indians, and some is exported to Europe and
the United States, both as dried leaves for making wines, tonics, etc.,
and for the extraction of alkaloid; also as cocaine for the making of
which over 20 small factories exist in Peru. Chewing coca leaves is of
great service on the plateau for necessary and unusual exertion, but
injurious and stupefying when its use is continuous.
=Rice= is grown in the north in Lambayeque and in the Pacasmayo Valley
of Libertad. With one flooding and little ploughing the crops are
produced annually, 46,000 tons in 1917. A little is exported but more
is imported. The two varieties grown are Carolina and Jamaica. The
straw is not utilized.
=Fruits= of various kinds may be grown in all the coast valleys, but
south of Lima the culture, especially of grapes, is more advanced.
Even in poor years it is said that the grape crop is superior to the
European average; but too little attention has been paid to improving
and extending the industry. The vineyards are small and combined with
the other interests of a _hacienda_. The grapes are grown on stocks
about eight feet apart, supported first by canes, later by trellises
on adobe columns. Nine hundred gallons of wine an acre is an average
yield. Italia and Abilla are cultivated for white wines, Quebranta,
Moscatel, and others for red; the former of these two being most
prolific and generally grown. A pink Italia is a fine table fruit.
Wines cheap and good are manufactured to the amount of 2,200,000
gallons yearly, and 770,000 gallons of _pisco_, made from white grapes,
also quantities of alcohol. The sugar of the _montaña_ is used to
make _aguardiente_ or rum; in several coast districts a finer quality
is made from grapes and is probably what in some sections is called
_pisco_.
Peru is rich in the variety of fruit possibilities, but grapes and
olives are the only ones cultivated in a large way, with a view to
commercial profit. Olives grown in the south from imported trees are
said to excel those of Spain or California. About 70,000 pounds are
exported. The yield of oil is about 30 per cent; not enough is made for
home consumption. Large possibilities exist in this direction. Other
fruits grown are of course oranges, bananas, melons, pomegranates,
_paltas_, or _aguacates_, or as we call them, alligator pears,
fine as properly eaten, the half fruit with salad dressing inside;
_chirimoias_, when in perfection nothing better; strawberries nearly
all the year around at Lima, more like the wild fruit with delicate
flavor; prickly pears, peanuts, pears, cherries, etc.
=Vegetables= in great variety are raised, some like ours, others never
before met with. Potatoes in many varieties grow up to an altitude of
13,000 feet or more. The wild bitter tuber from which the varieties
were probably developed still grows wild. Enock says the yellow potato
(not sweet) is unrivalled for excellence, but I saw none superior to
the best of our white. Other tubers cultivated are the yam (three crops
a year), _manioc_, and others.
=Maize.= The best maize in the world, says Vivian, is grown in Peru;
but I am sure that he never ate any sweet corn in Rhode Island. Grown
in all parts of the country up to 11,500 feet, it is native, like
potatoes and cotton, and is one of the main stays of the country. Maize
and potatoes are the chief foods of the Indians. Parched corn is much
eaten on the plateau; it is most useful where bread is not to be had,
and often is to be preferred. Toasted maize is called _cancha_. Three,
sometimes four, crops are had annually. Food for man and beast, the
stalks used for fodder, it is all consumed in the country. That grown
near Cuzco is said to be of the finest quality, with grains the size of
large beans, a very thin pellicle, and very farinaceous. One district
in Lima produces 10,000 tons a year.
=Cereals= are raised, wheat, barley, and oats, from 5000 to 11,500
feet. Wheat formerly grown on the coast is now seen on the uplands,
but large importations of wheat and flour are made. Barley grows to a
greater height, 12,000 feet or more and is much used for animal fodder,
for mules and horses, taking the place of oats, which are not much
cultivated. Alfalfa, much better for fodder than barley, is largely
used, growing in sheltered places up to 12,000 feet, about the same
as maize. A specialty of Peru and Bolivia is _quinua_, which is very
prolific and grows freely in poor soil from 9000 up to 13,500 feet.
It would be well if it were widely cultivated in other countries.
Suitable conditions could be found in many places not necessarily at
such altitudes. For many purposes it seems preferable to corn meal. It
may be eaten raw with sugar or water or cooked as mush; it is called a
tonic for _soroche_. The grains are round, about the size of mustard
seed.
=Tobacco= is raised to a small extent, especially in Tumbes and
adjoining districts. It is called of superior quality, and is preferred
by some Peruvians to the imported, but it is too strong and coarse for
many; the upper class Peruvians generally prefer Havanas. Perhaps 1000
tons are produced, some of which is exported to Bolivia, Chile, and
Brazil. The Government has a monopoly of its sale, regulating price and
profits of native and imported both, and owning the cigarette factories.
Ramie grass and haricot beans produce each four crops a year, flax and
hemp, two crops; the castor oil plant is cultivated, and at the south
the mulberry with the silk-worm.
FORESTRY
Forest products except rubber have received little attention, although
the export of tagua, vegetable ivory, has greatly increased within the
last ten years. The palm grows wild in the _montaña_. The nuts are
picked up by the Indians and carried to Iquitos, thence sent to Europe.
They are also used in the forest for curing rubber, the only industry
of much importance in this section.
=Rubber= for years has been exported in considerable quantities, at
first collected from districts on the tributaries of the Marañon,
later from those of the Ucayali. Earlier the rubber gatherers called
_caucheros_ cut down the _caucho_ trees, a hole in the ground
having been previously prepared to receive the milk, which was then
coagulated by a solution of soap with the juice of a native plant
called _vetilla_. This method of cutting down the trees, which still
has some vogue in other countries, is now forbidden in Peru. The
_caucho_ here averages 100 pounds to a tree. It was exported in planks
or cakes weighing 80 to 100 pounds each. The _jebe_, rubber of the
finest quality passing for the best Pará fine, comes from the _hevea
brasiliensis_ or other species of _hevea_. These trees are found lower
down than the _castilloa elastica_ (from which comes the _caucho_)
at an altitude of about 300 feet, where it grows to a height of 60
to 70 feet. By tapping the _hevea_, about 20 pounds yearly of rubber
is obtained. Peru’s rubber export 1908-12 averaged 4¹⁄₂-5¹⁄₂ million
pounds worth 20 to 30 million dollars; but the lowering of price due
to the Ceylon plantations, and perhaps the discovery of atrocities
practiced upon the Indians in some quarters greatly diminished the
export for some years. It seems to be reviving. In 1916 $3,400,000
worth was exported. Better regulations have been made and the
possibility of arranging a system of plantations is discussed. Nearly
all the rubber is exported from Iquitos; but some from the Madre
de Dios section, the Inambari, and the Urubamba goes out by way of
Mollendo. The export duty of Peru, 8 per cent, has been much less than
that of Brazil.
Other forest products, which now receive little attention, include all
kinds of valuable timbers, medicinal plants, dye woods, etc., usual in
a tropical forest.
STOCK RAISING
=Cattle.= The cattle industry is one of large importance, pasturage
beginning in the foot-hills of the coast, and going up to 13,000 feet
or more. The large ranches are in the sierra, some having 20,000 cattle
and 500,000 sheep. Cattle are raised in Cajamarca, Junín, Ayacucho,
Cuzco, and Puno. The beef is apt to be tough, badly cut, and is better
boiled than roasted. Cross breeding with Argentine or other stock
would improve it greatly, and attention is being paid to the matter.
The pasture lands are called excellent. Hides are quite largely
exported and cattle are imported from Argentina and Chile, chiefly for
slaughter, a few for stock. Mutton is largely eaten in the sierra.
=Wool= is an important export, likely to increase, for the plateau
affords ample space, with good wild grasses. The native sheep have
rather long legs and a rough scanty fleece; crossed with merinos they
give more wool. Good stock was brought from Punta Arenas some years
ago with an experienced manager, and near Lake Junín a big ranch has
been developing on 130 square miles. There is no finer country for
sheep raising than the high valleys of the plateau. Alpacas, _vicuñas_
and llamas also afford wool, the first two of much greater value. The
_vicuña_ wool is the finest, but there are so few of the animals that
the export is small. That of alpaca, however, is greater than that
of wool, at least in value. The larger part of the world’s supply of
the genuine article comes from the Peruvian and Bolivian plateau. The
llama, the great burden bearer, has a heavy but coarse fleece, yet some
of it is exported. There are more of these three animals in Bolivia.
The Indians are expert in their care. The _guanaco_ is a larger animal,
somewhat similar, which has never been domesticated, and is hunted by
the Indians for food. The chinchilla, and the _viscacha_, the Peruvian
hare, are hunted for their skins. Many pigs are raised and lard is
exported.
=Horses.= The horses are rather small, but are very fine saddle
animals. Some have five distinct gaits. I found them more sure-footed
than mules, going up and down veritable rock stairways with ease. They
are to some extent originally of Arabian stock.
=Fish= of the finest quality of 40 or more varieties and in great
abundance are found off the coast; large lobsters, scallops, the
corbina, cod, sole, smelt, mackerel, and many others are caught.
=Guano.= There are seals on the islands and an enormous number of
sea-birds, which have made the great deposits of guano on the islands.
As there was no rain the deposits have been preserved for centuries
without loss of the nitrogen of which there is 14 per cent. The islands
occur singly or in groups along the coast, some far out beyond the
track of the steamers. All are barren and uninhabited. The Chincha
Islands had enormous deposits now exhausted. There has been much waste,
and deposits have been removed so ruthlessly as to disturb the birds;
but now there are careful regulations. Agreement was made some years
ago with the Peruvian Corporation (British) by which they were allotted
2,000,000 tons of the guano; of this they have had more than half;
operations have recently been restricted and few shipments made.
MINING
The mine fields of Peru, once famous for their production of gold
and silver, never wholly neglected, were for a time less vigorously
worked. In the days of the Spanish colonists gold and silver were the
chief objects of acquisition, but lately these metals have seemed less
fashionable than copper. The variety in Peru’s wealth in minerals is
shown to some extent by a list of her production in 1917 in millions
of pounds in round numbers: copper, 84; copper matte, 4.4; copper ore,
16.5; vanadium, 7; lead ore, 7.5; antimony ore, 3.75; silver ore,
1.76; tungsten, 1. Smaller quantities of other ores were produced:
gold, 2000 pounds; sulphur, 120,000; metallic silver, 8000; silver
concentrates, 700,000; precipitated silver, 10,000; lead bullion,
250,000; lead concentrates, 650,000; zinc ores, 640,000; lead slag,
177,000; copper cement, 145,000; molybdenum, 12,000; gold ores, 30,500.
Many other minerals exist, not exported in large enough quantities to
have been given in this list.
=Copper.= Americans were slow to become interested in mining
investments in South America as in commercial trade, but when assured
of the success of the pioneer enterprise inaugurated at Cerro de Pasco
by New York capitalists about 1900, others followed, and large sums
have now been invested in several Republics. Silver was discovered at
Cerro de Pasco in 1630 and $200,000,000 were produced in one century.
Four hundred and fifty million ounces were obtained by hand labor, the
ore being carried by llamas to primitive smelters. Little interest was
taken in copper; only ore with 25-50 per cent of the metal was formerly
exported. Here at Cerro, where is located, some say, the richest copper
deposit in the world, the titanic forces of nature cast upward a
wonderful mass of material, gold, silver, copper, etc. Here are great
open pits several hundred feet deep, worked for centuries for silver.
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.
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.
=Other minerals= exported are tungsten, in 1917 1500 tons with a
60 per cent basis; a deposit at Yauli gives 14 per cent zinc with
silver; a large borax lake near the city of Arequipa is likely soon
to be developed; salt, a government monopoly, is found in many places
but mainly worked in the _salinas_ of Huacho near Lima. Bismuth,
molybdenum, and antimony are found.
=Petroleum= is a very important product of Peru, the total area
of oil territory being 5000 square miles, not all proved but with
possibilities. The chief field is in Tumbes and Piura in the north,
the Titicaca so far having made slight production. The latter field
is 300 miles from the sea and eight from Lake Titicaca, near the
Bolivian frontier and extending toward Cuzco. Deposits have been found
in several provinces but the chief work was not far from the Juliaca
station where 10 wells were sunk, in 1912 producing an average of 50
barrels a day, the oil with the paraffin base. At last accounts the
work had been discontinued. In 1915 there were 524 wells in the country.
The field at the north extends 180 miles south from the town of Tumbes
to some distance beyond Paita, running east to the mountains and
perhaps including the Islands of Lobos. The field is 30 miles wide,
though some believe it may extend 150 miles. Here is practically no
rain, no vegetation, and no water, except that of the sea which is used
for all purposes. The temperature is called ideal. The wells range from
250 to over 3000 feet deep. At the north there is a slight plateau
160-500 feet high, running down towards the south.
The Zorritos field farthest north and the oldest in Peru is 24 miles
south of Tumbes, with wells four miles along the coast, drilled mostly
at the water’s edge and some in the ocean. The deepest is 3000 feet but
most are 600-2000 feet. Some wells produce 500-600 barrels a day, but
one third of those dug were failures.
The Lobitos field in Piura, 60 miles north of Paita, with a proved area
of 725 square miles the second largest in Peru, has all its wells over
2000 feet deep. One sunk to 3435 feet was a failure. A well around 3000
feet deep costs $10 per foot average, against $1.50 or $2.00 for wells
under 1500 feet. The shallower wells here are short lived. In 1915 a
new pool was opened 12 miles north.
The Negritos field is the richest, 40 miles north of Paita, with an
area of 650 square miles. The average depth of the wells is 2500-3000
feet and the most important oil deposits are below 1500 feet. Eleven
miles east is an asphalt seepage called La Brea. The oil from Negritos
is piped 16 miles north to Talara, the port where the refinery and the
wharves are situated. Besides the 6-inch pipe line there is a narrow
gauge railway. The modern refinery has a capacity of 6000 barrels
a day. With pressure stills employed the oil will give 75 per cent
benzine. The Talara port permits vessels of 28-foot draught to approach
the wharves. The International Petroleum Company, said to be controlled
by Standard Oil interests, now operates this property and has taken
over the smaller property of the Lagunitos Oil Company 11 miles from
Talara. The amount of oil production in Peru has in ten years increased
from 756,226 barrels of 42 gallons to 2,550,000 barrels in 1916, two
thirds of the last amount coming from Negritos and Lagunitos.
INDUSTRIES
While Peru does not support large manufacturing industries she has more
than some other South American countries and ample means for increase.
Scattered along the coast are more than 50 streams which, though small,
falling 10,000 feet, are capable of providing an immense amount of
electric power. The use of electricity is already widespread, electric
lights and telephones are found in many towns, in several, electric
cars; the development of this source of power is progressing.
Of factories, sugar mills take the lead, 50 _haciendas_ near the coast
having their own mills. In some of these 75 per cent of the sucrose is
extracted with the use of the best machinery. Alcohol and _aguardiente_
are made from both sugar cane and grapes, as well as wine from the
latter. There are rice mills, and factories for making soap, tallow,
lard, matches, chocolate, paper, and other ordinary articles; tobacco,
cigar and cigarette factories, flour mills, etc. Panamá hats, though
made by hand, must not be forgotten.
Of great importance is the manufacture of textiles, in which the
Indians were so proficient in Inca days that their work is said never
to have been surpassed. Now there are seven cotton factories, five of
these at Lima, making 24,000,000 yards of cloth for the home market.
Three thousand operatives are employed. Also there are five woolen
factories, at Lima, Cuzco, and Arequipa. Although the Indians are
illiterate and lacking in initiative they have a taste for mechanics
as well as for agriculture and pastoral pursuits. They still weave
and spin, making excellent ponchos and blankets. Education will be a
developer. The Indian’s patience and skill should be utilized, his
ambition roused, so that he may desire to live more comfortably. Higher
wages and more varied wants for these people will produce more business
and prosperity in all lines.
INVESTMENTS
Peru obviously offers very favorable opportunities in many lines:
railway construction and varied works of engineering, irrigation,
sanitation, development of electric power; agriculture, especially
the raising of sugar and cotton along the coast, and of a variety of
additional products in the montaña; mining of all kinds, especially
coal; stock raising; all of these in many sections with a very
desirable climate. Of stock, the raising of sheep for the export of
wool would doubtless be most profitable. The grasses of the table-land
are excellent fodder; the climate is cold enough to ensure heavy fleece
but not so extreme as to be injurious in snow storms or in fair
weather. By importing a few rams an expert in the business would be
able to conduct it with large profit.
The farmer may purchase land in the montaña at $1.00 an acre and
up, according to location, or secure it on other terms arranged
for immigrants. Rubber and timber lands are leased under special
regulations. Fruit raising and poultry might be profitable in some
places. There is an excellent chance for small factories, perhaps for
large ones. In many cities of the North and West Coasts American hotels
or boarding houses, if properly conducted, would have great success.