page_title: Osmore River
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Osmore River / Economy
caption_attribution_description: English: This image looks down the bull’s-eye of Peru’s Toquepala copper mine, a steep sided and stepped open-pit mine. Mid-afternoon sunlight on the arid slopes of the central Andes mountains provides an accent to the mine contours. At the surface the open pit is 2.5 kilometers across, and it descends more than 700 meters into the earth.
context_page_description: Osmore River system flows northeast to southwest in the Moquegua Region of southern coastal Peru. The river has its origin in the snow peaks of the Chuqi Ananta and Arundane mountains, at an elevation of 5,100 metres. It changes names as it descends from the Andes: From its origin it is called the Moquegua, then Osmore in the middle valley as Rio Coscori and Rio Tumilaca including where the river disappears into subterranean channels, and further down in the lower reaches as Rio Ilo.
  An initial reconnaissance of the archaeological treasures of the valley carried out in the 1980s revealed more than 500 archeological sites dated from 10,000 years of human occupation. The Asana archaeological site, occupied over a period of 8,000 years, is located by the Asana River, a tributary of the Osmore.
  There are also Wari culture sites, and the Tiwanaku culture sites in the area; this is where these two cultures came in contact.
context_section_description: The valley has fertile land where the dominant crops grown are grapes (from 1970s), corn (maize), pepper (aji), and cotton. Ilo area (coastal area) is an area of economic prosperity, more pronounced since the 16th century because of its agricultural (olives groves) and fisheries development and shipping. In spite of water shortage in the coastal belt some olive groves are still farmed. Grapes from the valley are brewed to the well known brand of Pisco brandy.
  A major economic activity in the region the large porphyry copper Mining|mine known as the Toquepala mine, located the Tacna Province, Tacna Department, Peru. The mine is an open-pit mine producing copper, molybdenum, rhenium and silver with minor gold and zinc.
caption: Stalleite picture of the Toquepala copper mine
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