More on the Kennecott Copper Corporation investment in Chile from the 1915 annual report:
BRADEN COPPER MINES COMPANY:
On Dec 31, 1915, the Kennecott Copper Corporation owned 96.45 per cent of the outstanding stock and bonds of the Braden Copper Mines Company. The BCMC owns the entire outstanding stock and bonds of the Braden Copper Company, a Maine corporation operating in Chile.
The Braden Copper Company owns at Sewell, Chile (named after one of the two founders of the American-owned Braden Company) 174 claims equal to 2,362 acres, and at Rancagua for railroad terminals the Company owns about 16 acres. At the present time it also has a concentrator with a capacity of 4,400 tons of ore per day, its own complete smelting plant, hydro-electric power plant, and a village for housing its employees. The entire property is in the Province of O'Higgins, Chile. The terminal of the mine's (NG --RS) railway at Rancagua is about 48 miles SE of Santiago.The narrow guage railroad depot at Sewell, ChileThe principal groups of mines are known as "Teniente," "Fortuna" and "Centinela"' ; they were discovered by Spaniards in the latter part of 1700 and originally operated by them; they were later owned and operated by Chilean natives. The Braden Copper Company acquired the property from the Chileans in 1904 or 1905 and development work has been carried on at these properties up to the present. The climate is very similar to that in the northern part of California. Labor conditions are good. The Company owns its own (NG) railroad, running from Sewell to Rancagua, a distance of about 45 miles; at Rancagua it connects with the government-owned railway which runs to Valparaiso on the seacoast.
The narrow gauge railroad at Sewell, Chile
The ore in the mines is a concentrating copper ore in the form of sulphides of copper in a brecciated andesite; the ore bodies occur around the periphery of an extinct volcano.There was milled during the last quarter of 1915 382,553 tons of 2.16 % ore and the production was 11,236,470 pounds of copper at an average cost of 7.9 cents per pound, and estimated earnings from the sale of same amounted to $1,033,000. . . The ore in the mines is a concentrating copper ore in the form of sulphides of copper in a brecciated andesite; the ore bodies occur around Mr. Pope Yeatman, consulting engineer of the Braden Copper Company, estimated as of January 1, 1915, 113,694,880 tons of ore, with an assay value of 2.84 per cente., and allowing for dilution in mining he reduces this value to 2.5 per cent. He estimates the value of the copper contents of the above tonnage, based on a 14-cent copper market, allowing an 80 % mill extraction, a 95 % smelter extraction and 6 1/2% cost of producing copper delivered to European markets as $324, 030,408, and the life of the mine, 32 years, based on above tonnage and with a plant having a capacity of 10,000 tons of ore per day.From the 1915 Kennecott Copper Corp annual report "for the period May 27, 1915 to Dec 31, 1915:On December 31, 1915, the Kennecott Copper Corporation owned 96.45 per cent of the outstanding stock and bonds of the Braden Copper Mines Company (note: formerly owned by the Guggenheim Brothers, major stock-holders in the newly-formed Kennecott Corp --RS). The narrow gauge railroad depot at the Kennecott Corporation Braden Copper Mine, Sewell, Chile
