50 51 cerro de pasco The greatest investment of the XXth century capacity each– and other hydraulic loading equipment. Thus, the coal coming from Goyllariquizga and Quishurcancha –crushed and washed at the smelter itself– was transformed into coke through the use of seventy Beehive furnaces. Toward 1917, it was planned to build an additional 28 furnaces. The Smelter was something akin to an industrial powerhouse, a majestic infrastructure on the desolate plain of Tinyahuarco. The golden age for the operation and the most productive for the smelter took place during the First World War. While Peru declared its neutrality during the early part of the conflict, it maintained constant cooperation with the Allied powers, which laid the foundations of future commercial relations with the United States at the expense of the United Kingdom, which experienced certain decline after the war. If at the onset of the conflict, in the light of uncertainty, Europe stopped buying from Peru, shortly afterwards raw materials saw a surge in prices, especially of cotton, sugar and minerals. The temporary boom that took place saw the Peruvian sol costing six dollars, and for a time, the workers were paid in gold coin. This rise in Cerro de Pasco was reflected in growth and an increase in imports of all sorts of goods at very low prices, including the most luxurious ones. Among these were period furniture, velvet drapes, delicate sets of fine china and even sterling silverware. The Smelter also had a laboratory furnished with the best equipment and inputs of the time, where all the raw materials were recorded and the refined products were analysed. There was also a hospital with a resident physician to look after minor accidents and illnesses –serious cases were sent to Cerro de Pasco– and a warehouse for supplies. In addition, there were two hotels, one for single people and the other for families. There was a workshop on the premises, thus minimising the need to send machinery abroad for repairs. The town known as Campamento Tercero alone accommodated close to five thousand people who had some relationship to the smelter. To service it, the corporation built and maintained a market, fostered the activities of a theatre, several schools (some funded by the government and others by the company) as well as social and sporting clubs, including a rowing club, since the Cerro company had two boats that could be used for recreation in one of the lakes. Similarly, another town known as Alto Peru was established, with more comfortable housing and which was projected to become an important city. Nonetheless, the end of the war was accompanied by a sharp decline in demand and in prices, and the Cerro company had to seek alternatives to increase production. To do so, they fast-tracked the Morococha project in Junin and acquired Casapalca, a large production unit located in the Lima highlands from Backus & Johnston, who were pressured to sell precisely because of the contraction in demand. With Morococha starting operations and the purchase of Casapalca, the Smelter became less attractive due to its distance and being in the opposite direction from Callao. While it was operating, the surroundings of the smelter began to be rapidly populated by Peruvians from different parts of the country who were anxious to find employment. This reached a point that on December 4, 1911, a law was passed for the foundation of a town named Fundicion (smelter), said law being ratified six years later on September 6, 1917 by means of legislation creating the district of Fundicion de Tinyahuarco (Tinyahuarco Smelter), which included the towns of Pasco, Visco and Cochamarca), the hamlet of Sacra Familia and the estates of Huaraucaca, Diezmo, Racracancha, Cuchis and Angascancha. Aware that their mining activities in the central highlands would outlast them and persist for decades, the Cerro executives decided to build a smelter and a refinery in a place roughly equidistant between Cerro de Pasco and Casapalca, and they chose the crossroads known as La Oroya, a bare plain allowing strategic access to the railway and located at an elevation 500 metres lower than the Tinyahuarco smelter. TINYAHUARCO’S HEYDAY WAS DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR. THE BOOM WAS SUCH THAT THE SOL REACHED AN EXCHANGE RATE OF SIX DOLLARS AND WORKERS WERE PAID IN GOLD COIN. The dimensions and the mechanisation of operations at the Tinyahuarco Smelter were unheard of by the country’s industrial community.
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