The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-07

squat on the ground and break the ore
with hammers. Nearly every one of them
was chewing coco, and could see the fat
guilds sticking out of the cheeks of many
of them. They work from daylight until
dark for what would be about II cents of
our money per day. The miners receive
about twice this amount. In all 700 hands
are employed, and this notwithstanding that
a great deal of the work is done by ma
chinery. One of the odd things about the
mines is the fuel. This mine is 600 miles
from the coast and $500 miles from the
coal mines OF Australia. The result is that
the freight on coal makes it cost $3.50 per
hundred weight, which is too expensive for
use. It's place is taken by the fuel of the
country, which is llama manure. This is
brought in on the backs of llamas in bags.
1t costs about so cents for one hundred
pounds, and 1900 pounds are required to
run forty horsepower engine for twenty
four hours. In company with one of the
managers of the mine I went into the llama
fuel pit, where 10000 pounds of this stuff
was stored. 1t did not smell at all bad, and
walking over it was like tramping through
gravel.
SILVER MINING IN PERU.
The silver mines of Peru are almost as
rich as those of Bolivia. There are, have
been told, about two thousand different sill
yer mines in that country, but owing to the
low price of silver only a very few are now
being worked. At Hualgayoc, in northern
Peru, just over the western range of the
Andes, there are four hundred silver mines
within forty square leagues. Some of these
mines produce as much as 300 ounces of
silver to the ton, and the waste dumps will
average, am told, at least sixteen ounces
per ton. The ore is mined by Indians, who
are paid about 30 cents of our money per
day. Their only tools are hammers, drills
and rawhde sacks. They have neither picks
nor shovels and they burrow through the
mountain like rats, taking out only the
richest parts of the ore. They work almost
naked, wearing only breech cloths about
their. waists, and as they work they utter
weird and melancholy cries. All of the ore
is carried out upon their backs. An Indian
will carry $50 pounds. He will climb up
ladders or notched sticks with such load
of ore upon his back and will go off on dog
trot with his burden. The ore is broken up
into small pieces with hammers by children.
1t is then ground by circular stones being
rolled about over it and then mixed with
quicksilver after the patio process by driv-
ing mules around through it. These Hual-
SdyOC mines are Ine ones WHICH
says produced $50, 900 900 worth of silver in
} thirty years. Much of the ore is now re-
duced to sulphide and taken on mules to
the coast and shipped to Europe for further
treatment.
CERRO DE PASCO MINES.
The same sort of work goes on at the
famous Cerro de Pasco mines in the Andes
above Lima, and, in fact, in nearly all of
I'll, IN
Cerro de Pasco mines which now in act
i've operation number about 300, and there
are 225 silver mines being worked at Yauli,
on the Oroya railroad, about sixty miles
away. Cerro de Pasco has always been
thought to be the crater of an extinct vol
cano 1t is situated about 1900 feet above
the sea, in one of the bleakest parts of the
Andes. The town, which is now only one
of about 5000 people, lies in a basin sur
rounded by barren rocks. The deposits con-
sist of great body OF low-grade silver ore
over a mile and half long by three-quar-
tiers of a mile wide This has been worked
down to a depth of about $50 feet, and
numerous tunnels have been run in at that
level to drain the mines The great trouble
is the water and further mining can only
be done by lower tunnels or heavy pumps
Henry Meiggs, the American engineer who
constructed so many great works in Peru
years ago, began a tunnel $50 feet below
the present levels. The work was stopped
however, at a distance of 900 feet from
the surface and at present nothing is be-
ing done. The tunnel will need to be ex-
tended from 900 to 1890 feet further before
ore is struck, and at the present low price
of silver there is little prospect of this be-
ing attempted. Within short time there
has been something of a revival Of the sill
yer industry at Cerro de Pasco, owing to
the copper ores lying under the low-grade
silver ores, and the camp to-day is more one
of copper than of silver. In the past the
Cerro de Paseo mines have produced enor-
NOUS quantities. Between 1880 and 1924 q, 200
tons of pure silver were taken out of them,
and the dumps of the mines, if they were
scientifically worked, would bring for
tune. Twenty years ago Cerro de Pasco
was turning out more than million ounces
of silver a year, and 1 am told that $780,
900 900 worth of silver was taken out from
under the ground which the town of
Cerro de Pasco now stands. These mines
were discovered in the seventeenth century
by an Indian. He camped out one night
near the site of Cerro de Pasco. Before go
ing to sleep he built fire upon some stones
and dWOK6 TO ma his SlOueS aldu
melted and that a lump of silver Stag had
taken their place
AMERICAN SMELLING WORKS.
The biggest Yankee enterprise have
found in mining way south of the equator
is the smelling works of the Backus &
Johnston Company, at Casapalca, Peru.
This company is composed of Mr.. ]. Back
us, Brooklyn man, who is a nephew of
the famous engineer Meiggs; Mr.. j. H.
Johnston, of Bath, who came out here to
work on the Meiggs railways, and Capt. III.
Guyer the owner of the Guyer Springs, in
Idaho, who is we'll known as a practical
miner and mining engineer in our Western
States. Backus and Johnston made nice
thing in establishing a brewery at Lima.
They imported machinery for it from the
United States. and made money from the
start. They sold the brewery some years
ago to an English syndicate for $500 600 in
gold They have since been dealing in
mines, and have put great deal of money
into their smelter. This is situated at
Casapalca, on the Oroya Railroad, away up
in the Andes, ninety-fve miles from the
sea and ,603 feet above it. The works run
night and day, and l am told that they
smelt to as good advantage as any estab-