48 49 cerro de pasco to divert the ore downwards to the furnaces. The project was also conceived with ample space, ensuring that in the future each independent unit could be expanded. After that, twelve ore storage facilities with a 2,000 tonne capacity apiece were built, along with the smelter, the warehouse, the carpentry, the moulding workshop and the laboratory. On top of this solid architecture of steel, stone and masonry, the most modern machinery of the time was installed, much of it equipped with mechanical loaders and almost all of them operated with automatic controls. The smelter began operations in November, 1906 and started operating at full capacity in 1907, recording an output by the end of 1920 of almost 661 million pounds of high-grade refined copper, almost 46 million ounces of silver and 193,000 ounces of gold. The smelter was equipped with an automatic sorter, which separated the fine metal from the coarse. The coarse metal was transported with 50 tonne hopper wagons to 24 hoppers located at a higher elevation, and from there sent directly to the blast furnaces in small four tonne cars. Each of these five furnaces had the capacity for 350 tonne loads a day. In addition, the plant was equipped with fourteen McDougall roasters 18 feet height and diameter with six hearths that allowed for rabbling the ore, thus ensuring that the sulphur would oxidise. There the fines were smelted in four open hearth furnaces which handled loads of 150 tonnes per day. There were also six Dwight-Lloddy grinders that prepared the ore for smelting in the blast furnace and converting the metal fines into a low-sulphur feed. The feed coming from both processes was converted by three Pierce Smiths into 98% blister copper that was the final product exported by the company to undergo electrolytic refinery processes in the United States. All of this mechanical process was complemented by Root blowers, Gordberg compressors, a six-tonne capacity scoop, three mobile cranes –one with a 75 tonne lifting capacity while the others had a 40 tonne lifting Left– Crane at the copper workshop. Nothing like this had been seen in the early 20th century. Right– The railway transported the concentrate to the Tinyahuarco Smelter to obtain a metal with higher grade. The greatest investment of the XXth century
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