All the world is familiar with stories of the Incas’ splendor and the viceroys’ luxury, based on the enormous riches of Peruvian mines in past centuries. Gold and silver seem to have run in streams of never-failing abundance from the sierras of this wonderful country, their wealth gleaming in temples dedicated to the worship of the Sun in pre-Columbian days and forming a pavement for the footsteps of viceregal princes in the no less flourishing period of colonial Spain. But it is not generally known that the decline of this abundance was due entirely to other causes than an exhaustion of the source of supply, and that the mineral wealth of Peru to-day is, for practical purposes, as great as ever. The progressive spirit of modern enterprise promises to restore the prestige once enjoyed by Peru as the richest mining country of the globe.

The natural development of the mining industry was first arrested when repeated uprisings of the Indians interfered with its interests, especially during the latter part of the eighteenth century; and it was still further checked by the war of Independence, which, although it brought the blessings of national freedom, left the country in a condition of political disorder and confusion, with all industry comparatively at a standstill. The young republic had neither funds nor experience adequate to meet the needs of industrial development; and, for many years, political matters held supremacy in the national councils, to the great detriment of trade and financial well-being.

But when the effects of constitutional liberty began to be apparent in a more stable government, and the decline of militarism was succeeded by an increasing interest in economic affairs, the nation turned its attention to many sources of wealth that had remained practically unworked for half a century, and the government stimulated this awakening spirit of enterprise by making laws calculated to encourage individual endeavor in every branch of industry. The inauguration of the School of Mines in 1876, and the adoption, the following year, of laws governing mining property so as to ensure perpetual and irrevocable ownership, proved of great importance in promoting the mining interests of the country. Foreign capital was encouraged by the liberal attitude of the Peruvian government to make large investments in mineral lands of the sierra, and from this period date many of the extensive foreign enterprises now established in Peru.

The mining code now in force was promulgated in 1901; it has given additional impulse to the industry, as, by its terms, every facility is afforded for the acquirement of mining property, as well as ample liberty in working it and perfect security in possession. The rights of the foreigner are the same as those of the Peruvian mine owner, no distinction of nationality being made in the conditions of ownership. By the law of 1877, each mining claim is subject to a half-yearly tax of fifteen soles (seven dollars and fifty cents, gold), which guarantees possession as long as it is punctually paid. A special law, passed in 1890, further guarantees that, until the year 1915, no new tax can be imposed on the mining industry or on the export of its products.

A mining claim, or pertenencia, is usually marked off in the form of a parallelogram, one hundred by two hundred metres in area, and is of indefinite depth. The measurement is made from an angle indicated by the concessionaire. A pertenencia for a placer-mining property, a platinum bed, petroleum deposit, tin or coal mine, is measured in the form of a square of two hundred and thirty metres each side. The maximum of a single concession is sixty adjoining claims, but any person or company may solicit as many concessions as desired, though a separate petition must be made for each, the only charge for this privilege being a stamp of five soles, which covers the cost, whether the concession is for one claim or sixty.

Mining property is conceded under the direction of the government, through the Department of Fomento, in which a general register of mines is kept, containing a record of all the mining property in the republic with the names of concessionaires and the extent and locality of their claims. As an encouragement to the development of mining, the importation of materials and machinery required in the elaboration of metals and the construction of railroads for their transportation is allowed free of custom house duties. The government organized, in 1902, the Corps of Mining Engineers, whose duties are to promote the mining interests of Peru by providing the most thorough information obtainable regarding the geology and mineralogy of the country. Commissions have been appointed by this organization to explore and examine new regions and to ascertain their mineral wealth, so as to secure such knowledge about them as may be necessary in the granting of concessions and the general exploitation of mining lands. Regular bulletins are published by the Corps of Mining Engineers, giving the results of these explorations, their pages being usually illustrated with interesting views of the regions traversed by the appointed commissions. The School of Mines has been of invaluable service in promoting a technical knowledge of mining among the young men of those districts where such an education is of the greatest importance. Graduates of this school are prepared to assume the management of a mine, and are qualified to direct the various departments of mining industry.

Although it is not only in the region of the sierra that valuable minerals are extracted,—since gold placers are worked in the coast districts of Nasca and Camaná, as well as in the valleys of Sandia and Carabaya, and elsewhere in the Montaña,—the riches of the Peruvian Cordilleras are so enormous and so varied that to speak of the sierra is, of necessity, to refer to its mines. The Nudo of Cerro de Pasco and the Nudo of Vilcanota especially appear to form storehouses full of vast treasures of metallic ore; gold, silver, copper, and other mineral products abound; and the companies now engaged in developing these regions are daily opening up new properties of increasing importance.

Cerro de Pasco and Yauli are the principal silver and copper mining districts of Peru. At Cerro de Pasco, nearly every kind of mineral is found within a radius of a mile. A North American syndicate purchased the mining properties of this district, the first engineers arriving to take charge of the property in 1901. The following year the syndicate bought the concession for the construction of a railway from Oroya to Cerro de Pasco, the line being completed and opened to traffic in 1904. This railway is eighty-two miles long, and has a branch twenty-five miles long to the coal mines, while the switches at the mines and smelter cover twenty miles more. The road is standard gauge and the locomotives and cars are of North American manufacture. The original cost of construction and equipment was about three million dollars. The work of putting up a smelter and furnaces was completed in 1906, and a reverberatory and roasting plant is now being installed, which will greatly increase the production of the establishment. In 1907 the annual capacity was thirty million pounds of pig-copper, and with the new improvements it is estimated that the quantity will be nearly doubled.

The mines of Cerro de Pasco have been developed by shafts, the lowest level being at a depth of over four hundred feet. The present output supplies the smelter, besides which an ore reserve is accumulated. All the properties of the company were purchased from small owners, and include over six hundred claims in the Cerro de Pasco district, besides about three hundred claims in Goillarisquisga, a few miles to the north, where valuable coal mines are located, furnishing eight hundred tons of this fuel daily. New properties have been recently purchased in the Morococha district, which is rich in copper and silver. In addition to these mines, the company owns the Paria estate at Cerro de Pasco, covering seventy thousand acres, which is used for pasturage and dairy purposes. A considerable population is supported by the various enterprises of the company, five hundred men being employed on the railway, sixteen hundred in the smelter, a thousand in the silver and copper mines and fifteen hundred in the coal mines. The syndicate has spent about eighteen million dollars on all these properties, including the cost of improvements and development, and is now in possession of one of the most valuable mining districts of the world.

The “Opulent City of Cerro de Pasco,” as it was entitled by a supreme decree of 1840, is a typical town of the Peruvian sierras. It was founded by the Viceroy Amat in 1771, and became one of the most important towns of the Intendencia of Tarma, which, under the colonial government, embraced the present Departments of Junín, Huánuco, and Ancash. Cerro de Pasco was made the capital of the Department of Junín in 1851; the cities of Jauja, Tarma, and Huancayo shared with it the prestige of political centres, being provincial capitals. Jauja, unsurpassed as a sanatorium, and destined to become a famous health resort, is one of the oldest towns of Spanish-America, having been founded by the conquerors before the site of Lima was selected for the capital of Peru. Tarma, founded about the same time as Jauja, is rich in minerals and claims additional importance from its situation on the highway of travel between Lima and Iquitos.

In the districts of Yauli and Huarochiri, which rank next in importance to Cerro de Pasco, silver and copper are also the principal metals extracted, though lead is an important product. Smelters and other establishments for the elaboration of gold, silver, and copper, have been installed at these places, the works at Casapalca, in the Yauli district, being especially notable. For some classes and grades of minerals, the process of smelting is followed, while in the treatment of others concentration is adopted. Yauli is located on the line of the Oroya railway, in the province of Tarma, Department of Junín, and Huarochiri lies a few leagues to the south, in the Department of Lima. Both these mining districts are worked at an altitude of twelve thousand feet or more. In the same region of the sierra are situated the silver-mining centres of Castrovireina, Huallanca, and Cajatambo, in the Departments of Huancavelica, Huánuco, and Ancash; and farther north, in La Libertad and Cajamarca, are the mines of Salpo and Hualgayoc, which are rich in silver ores.

Everywhere in the Andean region silver is found, though it is usually mixed with copper or lead. Most of the silver ore in the Cerro de Pasco district is of a reddish color, due to the oxide of iron it contains; the Peruvian miners give it the name of cascajo, or gravel. The copper ores, like the silver, appear in combination with other metals, veins of copper containing usually some silver and gold. In Ancash, Ica, and Arequipa, in the coast zone, these copper deposits are also found, and new smelting establishments have been installed in these departments which are contributing to increase the output of copper ore. New copper mines have been explored in the provinces of Jauja, Pasco, and elsewhere, and prove to be rich in ores. The industry is in a more promising condition than it has ever been. Petitions for concessions of mining property are constantly reaching the government, a favorable augury for the future development of this valuable resource. Lead exists in large quantities in Yauli, Huarochiri, and several districts of Ancash and Cuzco.

The Nudo of Vilcanota embraces an extensive mining region to the north and west of Lake Titicaca; and the veins of precious metals follow the course of the Cordilleras, which, after separating, form the Nudo of Cerro de Pasco. The Cailloma mines, in Arequipa, and those of the Lucanas district, in Ayacucho,—both rich in silver,—are located in the western range, while those of Cuzco belong to the eastern and central Cordilleras. Puno lies in the heart of a vast mineral region; in its provinces some of the most productive mines of Peru are to be found. The Inca Mining Company, in which more than a million dollars of North American capital is invested, has developed gold mines of enormous value in the province of Carabaya, supplying about nine-tenths of the gold coined in Peru, and having a monthly output amounting in value to ten thousand pounds sterling. The history of this enterprise is an interesting sequel to the record of gold-mining in colonial days.

During the period of the viceroyalty, the gold mines of the province of Puno produced vast wealth, the viceroy once sending as a gift to Charles V. a nugget that weighed a hundred pounds, taken from San Juan del Oro; and one of his successors presented to Philip IV. another famous nugget, shaped like a man’s head and of great size. When the Indians revolted against Spanish authority a few years before the war of the Independence, those of Carabaya and Sandia joined the rebel ranks and slaughtered their masters, hoping to be relieved from the hard work of the mines. This uprising, and the war of Independence that followed, caused the mining industry to be totally neglected until the middle of the last century, when a party of explorers looking for cascarilla bark found gold in the bed of the Challuma River, and a rush followed, which lasted for two or three years. During that time several million dollars’ worth of gold was taken out, and a nugget weighing over four pounds was presented to General Castilla, then president of Peru. But the system of mining employed was primitive and, after the first excitement passed, only a few gold-diggers remained, the mines from that time being worked on a small scale until the Inca Mining Company purchased the Santo Domingo property a few years ago and set up a large establishment.

The discovery of the Santo Domingo gold mine was made by a Peruvian, Don Manuel Estrada, but it was the enterprising spirit of two North American prospectors, Chester Brown and Wallace Hardison, which led to its being exploited on a large scale. Mr. Hardison had seen, in Lima, samples of rich ore that had been found in Carabaya, and he was not long in making his way to the goldfields to investigate further. He was joined by Mr. Brown and they went to Santo Domingo together, starting from the Southern railway terminus at Juliaca on muleback, accompanied by their guides, and having with them a number of llamas laden with provisions and blankets. Both courage and faith were required to follow up a trail in such a rugged, mountainous country as that over which the Americans travelled. Part of the route was across the high sierra, sixteen thousand feet above sea level, where the riders could look on a sea of clouds rolling below, while the sun blazed down from a sky of wonderful blue. Only those who have travelled on these heights know how clear are the skies and how piercing is the white light of the sun at these altitudes. When there is no sun, the weather is freezing cold. The wealth of the Santo Domingo mine was apparent to the prospectors from the first, and the Inca Mining Company was organized at once with capital to purchase the property.

The Inca Mining Company established headquarters at Tirapata, on the Southern railway between Juliaca and Cuzco, and immediately began to develop their mining property. A concession was obtained from the Peruvian government, under which the company built a wagon road from Tirapata to Santo Domingo, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. In return for opening up the country in this way, the company received about two thousand acres for every mile of wagon road completed. The route lies almost due north for seventy miles, from Tirapata to Crucero, passing the small towns of Asillo and San Anton, in the midst of excellent grazing lands for sheep and alpacas. Crucero, which was once the capital of Carabaya province, is also the centre of a pastoral district. A few miles beyond Crucero the road crosses the Aricoma Pass at an altitude of sixteen thousand feet, and then begins the descent of the eastern slope of the Andes to Limbani, which marks the beginning of the timber line and the limit of established government authority. From this point the journey is made at times through the virgin forest and always through a region little frequented by the white man. Agualani Station is the next stopping place, where travellers find sleeping accommodations. After leaving this place, the road crosses the Inambari River at La Oroya, over a bridge three hundred feet long, and a few hours’ riding brings one to Santo Domingo. The administration house of the company at Santo Domingo is built of solid mahogany and fitted up with all modern comforts. Here in the heart of the forest, hundreds of miles from a railway, are to be found the conveniences of electric lights, hot baths, electric fans, and other comforts supposed to belong only to the favored residents of a great metropolis. The employés have a tennis court, and a telephone connects Santo Domingo with Tirapata, which has telegraphic communication with the other cities of the republic and, through them, with the outside world. Modern mining machinery has been put up at Santo Domingo, at great cost of labor and money; three years were consumed in getting the stamp mill to the mines. A few miles beyond Santo Domingo the rubber country begins, through which the company has built a road to the Madre de Dios, as elsewhere described. In the same region in which the Inca Mining Company’s properties are located are the mines of Montebello and the Lavaderos de Oro, famous in colonial times. The Lavaderos de Oro mines are in Carabaya, the streams of which are nearly all gold-bearing. The Rinconada Mining Company of North America, with a capital of two million dollars, is working rich properties in the districts of Poto and Quiaca, province of Sandia.

There is not a single Department of Peru in which gold has not been found, though in many districts its mining is still among the primitive industries, the Indians washing it out of the streams that drain their communidades, and using the nuggets and gold dust as a medium of exchange. It is not unusual for an Indian of the Marañon, Sandia, Urubamba, or other valleys, to offer a little sack of gold nuggets in payment for his tobacco and similar luxuries purchased in the stores of interior towns. A curious process of placer-mining has long existed among the Indians, which is supposed to be the origin of one of their popular sayings that “in Peru one can sow stones and harvest gold.” It is still in vogue in some districts, and consists in laying flat stones along the bed of a gold-bearing river during the dry season, in such a way that, when the rains come and the mountain streams bring down in their current the precious gravel, these nuggets are caught in the spaces between the stones and held there. When the river falls, or disappears, as it does in many cases during the dry season, the Indian sower of stones reaps his harvest of gold.

The question of transportation has hitherto been such a very important factor in determining whether mining properties were worth developing or not, that some rich deposits have been allowed to remain untouched, and regions known to abound in valuable metals have been only partly explored, on account of the difficulty and expense attending any effort to penetrate beyond a certain radius, accessible to the railways. In this connection, the work of the Corps of Mining Engineers has proved of inestimable value, their surveys extending to every region, so that they are rapidly effacing from the map of Peru its Territorio inexplorado. Every expedition sent into the interior returns with fresh information regarding the country’s mineral resources; and deposits, hitherto unknown to exist, have been brought to light under the investigations of scientific commissions.

In colonial days, Peru was famous for its quicksilver deposits, and the mine of Santa Barbara in the Department of Huancavelica, was the centre of this industry, which was of great service in facilitating the amalgamation of silver ores. The history of Huancavelica is one of the most interesting pages in the mining records of Peru, the quicksilver mines of this region being, in the time of the viceroyalty, the richest in the world. Cinnabar has been proved to exist in abundance for thirty miles around the Santa Barbara mine, in as many as fifty hills of the neighborhood. Veins of this red sulphuret of mercury are also found in the Departments of Cajamarca, Huánuco, Junín, Ayacucho, Cuzco, and Puno, and it has been worked in various mines. The mineral production of Huancavelica is undergoing a revival, and a new era of prosperity is dawning for this historic district.

The discovery of large deposits of bituminous and anthracite coal is regarded as of particular importance in a country where it is required so generally for mining purposes. The exploitation of this mineral is just beginning to show results, the mines of Goillarisquisga being the most important. Anthracite coal is found in Ancash, La Libertad, and other departments; in Cuzco are beds of coal containing the trunks of trees perfectly carbonized. Along the lower banks of the Ucayali River, and in various districts of Puno, lignite exists in considerable quantities. Peat is abundant, especially in Junín, where it is known as champa. It is used a great deal throughout this region, and is a combustible of great value.

With gold, silver, copper, and coal as the basis of her mineral wealth, Peru has numerous other deposits which, once developed, must yield a large revenue. Already the petroleum wells of Tumbes, Piura, and Puno give promise of producing great wealth, and new discoveries of this liquid bitumen are continually being made. It is found at Chimbote and near Casma,—both in Ancash Department,—and it abounds in the district of Palpa, in Ica. Jauja, Huancavelica, and Cuzco also have petroleum deposits, and there are evidences of its presence in several other districts. Foreign capital is already invested in this field, which is apparently of vast productiveness. The two principal centres of the industry at present are in the northern coast region—especially at Tumbes and Piura—and in the vicinity of Like Titicaca, in the district of Pusi, Department of Puno. There are two petroleum refineries in Peru, and these are but the forerunners of more extensive establishments. The Titicaca Oil Company sank eight wells in the Department of Puno, in five of which oil was struck, and the industry has attracted the attention of capitalists who are prepared to develop it on a large scale.

In Tumbes and Piura, great masses of sulphur have been found almost on the surface of the soil, and the beds are being worked by a rich company. The mineral contains fifty per cent of sulphur, and when elaborated the product is ninety-eight pure. The coast country is rich in mineral salts, especially of soda, magnesia, etc.; chloride of sodium is found in Morrope, in the Department of Lambayeque, and saltpetre exists not only in the provinces of the coast but in Cajamarca and other interior departments. There are important beds of borax in several of the southern states, those of Arequipa yielding large quantities of this useful product. The borax beds of Arequipa were discovered in 1893 by Don Juan Manuel de Escurra, who formed a company for their exploitation, the enterprise being now in the hands of a large syndicate, the Borax Consolidated Limited, which has an extensive establishment, with all modern improvements, including twelve reverberatory ovens for drying the borax. The Laguna de Salinas, where the borax is found, lies just west of Arequipa on the pampa between the Misti and the Pichu-Pichu.

Iron is met with in almost every mining district of Peru. In the province of Calca, in Cuzco, mines have been discovered containing iron with a grade of eighty per cent pure metal. They have been little worked owing to the expense connected with their exploitation. Nickel abounds in the northern districts of Ayacucho; mica of superior quality has recently been found in one of the coast provinces of Arequipa; bismuth exists in various districts, and Junín has deposits of bismuth-ochre containing forty per cent of bismuth. Molybdenum, which is constantly increasing in demand for amalgamating purposes, is exploited in Jauja and Cerro de Pasco; and, in the neighboring Department of Ayacucho, iron, manganese, and wolfram are taken out of the mines of Lircay. It would be difficult to name a mineral that is not to be found somewhere in Peru; and its marbles, granites, and other fine stones are of the highest value for architectural and constructive work. Kaolin, cement, and other clays for ceramic purposes are abundant, and may be utilized in manufacturing the finest pottery and porcelains. The ancient Peruvians had the secret of making their urns and vases of pottery so very light in weight as to be remarkable for this feature among all the ancient potteries; one of the tests used by experts in determining whether the huacas that are sold as antiques in the Lima stores are genuine or false consists in weighing the article, the modern imitators being unable to produce a pottery as light as the original.

The exports from Peruvian mines show increasing development of the mining industry annually. The production of silver last year amounted to about five million dollars in value, and of copper to a little over that amount; petroleum was taken out to the value of a million and a half dollars, gold of a million dollars, and other minerals in paying quantities. During 1907, the Cerro de Pasco mine shipped ten thousand tons of copper, more than a third of all that South America exported to the United States that year, and the output for 1908 is estimated at fifteen thousand tons. It is predicted that the ultimate copper output of Cerro de Pasco will reach fifty thousand tons.