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They disappeared with the passage of time; a time spanning centuries. However, the name remains: Atacocha. This is the name of the mining district and the company. This is the name that seeks to keep the memory of the effort and perseverance necessary to make the mountain produce, possibly for as much time as the ore remained locked within it.
However, until the end of the nineteenth century, the name Atacocha was mentioned only occasionally. It was one more area among several others close to the mining province of Cerro de Pasco. The focus of attention was given mainly to the Yauricocha site or to Cerro de Pasco, which, since its discovery in 1630, gradually became one of the main production sources for silver in Colonial Peru.
Groups of miners headed towards Cerro de Pasco from the most diverse areas of the country. The camps became progressively populated. Thanks to this growth, the town of Cerro de Pasco was formed, receiving in 1639 the title of "Royal City of Mines" by decision of King Phillip IV of Spain and, in 1771, under Viceroy Manuel Amat y Juniet, that of "Mining Town of Cerro de Pasco".
The title was far from arbitrary. The name "Mining Town of Cerro de Pasco" reflected the daily lives of its inhabitants, whose organization necessarily depended on working the mining site. The observations made by Antonio Raimondi provide an overview of its characteristics in the nineteenth century. After exploring the region for eight years, while creating a detailed listing of samples that he collected and analyzed himself, the Italian researcher wrote in his Account of Cerro de Pasco and the Mountain of Chanchamayo, published in 1885:
"The city of Cerro de Pasco is entirely mined, so much so that the pickaxes can be heard striking under the homes, and it has occurred that the floor, with all the furniture, has sunk into one of the great underground cavities. This catastrophe once happened at night, forcing the dwellers to flee in a hurry without time to even get dressed".
The population, the life, the titles, everything related to Cerro de Pasco, contributed to spread the fame of the site; its deposits became renowned. Therefore, it was natural that any references to the name Atacocha gained greater recognition only later, and then, at the beginning only due to its proximity to Cerro de Pasco or Yauricocha.
However, Antonio Raimondi himself, in his book The Minerals of Peru, made the first explicit and documented reference to Atacocha. He analyzed three samples that, according to his observations, came:
“from the ore in Atacocha, three leagues from Cerro de Pasco, between the mountain ranges of Quinua and Tulluragra”.
And Raimondi added:
“There are many others in the mountain where this mine is found, but they are all very superficial”.
Various works contain further references that could well include the Atacocha deposit. The reference to Chiquirín, for example -the name with which the town of Chicrín was known- is one of them. An Account of the Rich Ore of Pasco, published by Mariano de Rivero y Ustáriz in 1828, indicates that:
“... the tall mountain called Chuquitambo, where the gold mines are…”
And, following a description of the geological structure:
“... there are auriferous cubic pyrites and green copper carbonate. These pyrites have been extracted for a long time; they alternate with the shaley clay that is also contained in the cubic pyrites. A coffer of this metal yields from 4 to 5 ounces; the gold if of the best grade and the metal is so abundant here and in the Quinua, Chiquirín and Huamanranca Mountains, that there is enough for many years... ”
Studies such as the above reflect the growing importance of the region. But, by the twentieth century and after the enactment of the Mining Code, effective since 1901, the need arose for a study to include a land survey and registry of the region. That was one of the tasks entrusted to the Cerro de Pasco Commission, chaired by Marco Aurelio Denegri.
To fulfill their assignment, the members of the Commission had to overcome no small difficulties. In its report, the Commission itself pointed out that the area was: "inhabited for the most part by improvised Peruvian and foreign miners who, concerned only with making their fortune and living for many year at such a great distance from the seat of the government of the Republic, deemed that laws, government decrees and administrative regulations could not change customs that had calmly taken root in the course of time and that tacitly replaced and even opposed such legislation”. |
