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Show know YOUR NEIGHBOR POPPER INDUSTRY HAD BFG!SMXGS IX ANCIENT 1XCAN ART Copper is one of the oldest of the metal arts. Copper was in e among the Indians of South America at the time of the Span-L Span-L conquests, at the beginning of he sixteenth century. Many rel-.' rel-.' have been found in arhaeologi-'., arhaeologi-'., excavations, chiefly knives, ,ubs and axes. The copper craft Ls widespread throughout the j whole of the ancient Incan empire. This primitive art, long since developed into one of the richest linin.r industries of the world, has served the needs of humanity widely in industrial and consumer nroduc'ts. Today, copper is an essential es-sential war material in hundred? of uses. Heavy bombers of soma types require approximately two miles of copper. Each battleship takes thousands of pounds to sea; it is also used in great quantities for ammunition and brass shell casings. The Latin American countries supply about 25 per cent of new copper- mined in the world, and their exports are now almost entirely en-tirely turned to war needs of the United States. Chile, Mexico, Peru, Pe-ru, Cuba and Bolivia are the most important copper republics, in the order named. Chile in 1938 produced pro-duced 79 per cent of the entire Latin American output, and 18 per rmt. of the world figure. Topography has played an important im-portant part in delaying the development de-velopment of present-day mines in Latin America, because of the long inaccessibility of mining reg-' reg-' ions, and the lack of transporta- America, which was five years in the making and is almost six miles long, is in one of the highest high-est groups -of the Cerro de Pasco mines. With the United States leading the world in . copper production, and its Latin American allies contributing con-tributing a similar tremendous output, an adequate supply of this strategic material for both civilian civil-ian and war needs may be assured. of the United States, has its most extensive mines in the state of Sonora, a southward continuation of the great copper bearing zones of the southwest United States-In States-In 1940, the United , States imported import-ed approximately 44,000 tons of copper from "Mexico, and that figure fig-ure has been markedly increased by the demands of war. Mexico's , mining has undergone great advancement ad-vancement since the '80's, with new capital, modern machinery, and new mining methods. Peru's great copper mines, the Cerro de Pasco', have been' worked since 1567. This mine now has an investment of over $30,000,000' and the. 25,000 people in the settlement set-tlement are almost entirely dependent de-pendent upon operations . of . the company. The mines have been worked by Indians of the high country . from one generation to the other, so that they have become be-come inured to working conditions in the extreme high altitude. The largest mining tunnel in South tion to smelters and markets. For instance, the Cero de Paso mines of Peru, among the largest in South America, are high in the Andes, 14,000 feet above sea, and were formerly connected with the coast only by an ancient Aztec paved pathway. They are now accessible ac-cessible by an extension of the Oroya railway, said to be the most costly and difficult piece of railway work in the world; there is also a highway connecting with the coast at Lima and Callao. When William Braden, pioneer North American miner in Chile, discovered the famous El Tenien-te Tenien-te mine he used 2,500 oxen to drag machinery 10,000 feet up the Andes. An-des. Chile's largest mine, Cruq-uicamata, Cruq-uicamata, is 87 miles inland from its power station at Tocopilla on the west coast. Chile's great Chuquicamata mine represents an investment of over $100,000,000, and its rated capacity is about 240,000 tons annually. an-nually. This mine is commonly referred to as the model mining camp of the world, because of the excellent living conditions provided provid-ed for workers and their families. El Tenients is also high in Chilean copper production, its smelter output out-put amounting to 120,000 tons per year. This plant operates its own narrow-gauge railway and two large hydroelectric plants. The ore is extricated entirely by numerous levela, crosscuts and s t o p e s inside the ore-bearing mountains produce a veritable beehive of industry. Mexico, the second producer of copper in the Latin Americas, and the nearest "Good Neighbor" |