Chuquicamata
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chuquicamata, or "Chuqui," as it is commonly called, is the second largest open pit copper mine in the world. It was named after a small city in the north-west of Chile. It began copper production on May 18, 1915. The Bingham Canyon Mine in the U.S. state of Utah is a larger excavation than Chuquicamata, but Chuquicamata produces more copper. Chuquicamata also produces significant quantities of molybdenum.
This article in its current state refers to the mine located near the former location of the city of Chuquicamata.
Chuquicamata is located 15 km north of the city of Calama in the region of Antofagasta. The mine is elliptical in form, with a surface of almost 8,000,000 m2, and it is 900 m deep.
Contents |
[edit] History
The area has been exploited since pre-Hispanic times. The word Chuquicamata comes from the Aymara language and refers to the first inhabitants of the zone. The territory where the mine is located passed from Bolivian to Chilean control and sovereignty due to the War of the Pacific and the subsequent treaties.
In 1912, the Guggenheim Brothers, an American organization, acquired the control over the Chuquicamata fields, and created the Chile Exploration Company. The construction finally started in February of 1913. Production steadily increased from an early yield of 45,000 metric tons annually, to 51,000 tons in 1918, 100,000 tons in 1923, and 200,000 tons by 1937.
The first copper bar, during its contemporary history, was produced on May 18, 1915 by the US company Guggenheim Bros. The company continued the mining exploitation with the names Chilean Exploration Co, Chile Copper Co., and Anaconda Co., until copper mining was nationalized during the Salvador Allende administration.
Until 1999 Chuquicamata had the name "Codelco Chile Division Chuquicamata", since then Codelco has renamed it to "Codelco Norte".
Today, the state-owned Chilean National Copper Corporation Codelco controls the mine. In 2003 encroachment by the growing mine and increased enforcement of pollution regulations forced the dismantling of the city of Chuquicamata — founded as a mining camp — workers and inhabitants were then relocated to the nearby city of Calama.
In the next 10 years Codelco has plans to make Chuquicamata an underground mine, mainly because the pit is becoming deeper and it makes the process of extracting the mineral difficult. The changes also mean that "Chuquicamata" will substantially improve its capacity for processing copper.
[edit] Economic effects
Copper mining has long been the most consistent of Chilean exports; and in current day, it still accounts for almost one-third of all foreign trade. Yet that 1/3 is down from a peak of almost 75% in earlier years.
Copper has been mined in the land area between central Chile and southern Peru since Colonial times. Yet it was not until the 20th century that copper reached the status importance of other mining exports such as saltpeter or silver. Before the first world war, saltpeter, collected in Chile from abundant deposits of seabird guano, was the main source of nitrates in the world. After the World War I, because of the production of artificial nitrates, synthesized first in Germany by the combination of the Haber process and the Ostwald process, the world market for saltpeter, which was Chile’s main export, collapsed. In turn, Chile’s economy became heavily dependent on the copper industry. It was from that period that copper became known as “Chile’s salary”.
By the late 1950s, the three largest copper mines in Chile were Chuquicamata, El Salvador, and El Teniente. Chuquicamata and El Salvador were owned and operated by the Anaconda Copper Company. These mines were mainly self-contained and self-sustaining settlements. They were complete with their own cities to house the workers, their own water and electrical plants, schools, stores, railways, and even in certain cases their own police forces. These mines were extremely beneficial in an economical sense, for they provided steady jobs and a steady income for the nation of Chile.
[edit] Chuquicamata in popular culture
Chuquicamata was featured in the 2nd Leg of The Amazing Race All Stars where the All-Star teams of the show had to either change the bolts and nuts of a giant wheel or use a machine to transport sand around the construction site.
[edit] References
- Camus, Francisco; John H. Dilles (2001). "A special issue devoted to porphyry copper deposits of Northern Chile". Economic Geology 96 (2): 233-237. doi:10.2113/96.2.233. Retrieved on 2007-11-11.
- Ossandon, C. Guillermo; Roberto Freraut C., Lewis B. Gustafson, Darryl D. Lindsay, Marcos Zentilli (2001). "Geology of the Chuquicamata mine: A progress report". Economic Geology 96 (2): 249-270. doi:10.2113/96.2.249. Retrieved on 2007-11-11.
- "Chili entre mine et famine". Sandrine Mörch (Director). Arte 360°, GEO. 55 min minutes in.
[edit] See Also
[edit] External links
