162 Copper Mines of Chils. [April, 
3. Piké or Pique of 400 varas. This mine is and always 
has been the most produ¢tive on the hill. It is owned by 
Don José Tomas de Urmeneta, whose perseverance in 
prosecuting the work upon it during years of heavy ex- 
penditure and disappointment has been rewarded by raising 
him to the highest rank among successful miners, and 
by enabling him to confer vast benefits on his country; for 
Urmeneta was the first man to introduce into Chili first- 
rate hauling and other mining machinery. 
For some fathoms below the outcrop the mine yielded 
carbonates and other oxidised ores. To these succeeded 
mixed purple and yellow sulphurets, which gave place to 
yellow only, about the 80-fathom level. This has become 
more and more mixed with specular iron and carbonate of 
lime the deeper the workings have been carried, so that the 
ore has become steadily poorer at the same time that the 
cost of extraction has increased. 
A banded structure is very distinét in the lower levels. 
From the floor of the lode there is— 
I. A clay selvage. 
II. A layer of almost pure specular iron ore. 
III. A layer of pure yellow sulphuret. 
IV. The rest of the lode consists of yellow sulphuret 
mixed with quartz, carbonate of lime, and specular iron. 
The yield of the lode from wall to wall is from 8 to Io 
per cent, and its average size varies from 3 to 6 feet, but in 
places it bulges to vastly greater size. The great riches of 
the Piké were derived from some enormous stopes at about 
60-fathom level, where the lode expanded to over 20 feet 
in width, and yielded a purple ore, which, as it came from 
the mine, averaged 30 to 35 per cent. It is supposed 
Urmeneta netted in one year at that time from this mine 
alone 1,100,000 dols. 
The underground works consist of an adit level, run from the 
western face of the hill, which cuts the lode at about 60 fathoms 
below its outcrop. All above this levelis now abandoned to 
piqueneros or tributers. The ore from below is hauled, by 
means of a Corliss engine and admirable machinery fitted 
with friction gearing, through three inclined shafts, which 
attain a depth of 80 fathoms below the end of the adit ; but 
the lowest level is nearly 60 fathoms below this again. The 
ore is raised this last 60 fathoms on the backs of Apéres 
(ore carriers) and by hand winches. ‘The lowest level of the 
mine is therefore about 200 fathoms from surface. The 
ladder shafts and all the galleries are inconveniently low 
and narrow. ‘The stopes being very full and the ground 
