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Chuquicamata
Chuquicamata (/tʃuːkiːkəˈmɑːtə/ choo-kee-kə-MAH-tə; referred to as Chuqui for short) is the largest open pit copper mine in terms of excavated volume in the world.[citation needed] It is located in the north of Chile, just outside Calama, at 2,850 m (9,350 ft) above sea level. It is 215 km (134 mi) northeast of Antofagasta and 1,240 km (770 mi) north of the capital, Santiago. Flotation and smelting facilities were installed in 1952, and expansion of the refining facilities in 1968 made 500,000 tons annual copper production possible in the late 1970s. Previously part of Anaconda Copper, the mine is now owned and operated by Codelco, a Chilean state enterprise, since the Chilean nationalization of copper in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Its depth of 850 metres (2,790 ft) makes it the second deepest open-pit mine in the world, after Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah, United States.
For most of the 20th century Chuquicamata was the most productive copper mine in Chile until this position was overtaken by Escondida in 1996. Chuquicamata remained the 2nd most productive copper mine in Chile until 2011 when it was surpassed by Collahuasi and Radomiro Tomic. As of 2024 it was the fifth most productive copper mine in Chile with a produce that year of 289 kTon copper.
In April 2019 Chuquicamata started to extract minerals from its new underground mine, beginning its transition into an underground operation. While the above-ground mining was estimated to continue at most one and a half year from the start of underground operations, given their incompatibity, by May 2021 above-ground mining remained in place given delays in expanding the underground mine.
There are several versions of the meaning of Chuquicamata. The most widely known seems to be that it means the limit (camata) of the land of the Chuqui. Yet there is no record of any tribe called "chiqui" in the historical record, and the indigenous peoples known near the area are the Aymara, Quechua and Atacameño. Another interpretation is that it means metal (chuqui) tipped wooden (camata) spear. Yet another theory is that it means 'Cima de Oro' or 'Summit of Gold' in Aymara language. Some scholars consider the part chuqui analogous to that found in Quechua toponyms such as chuquisaca, chuquichuqui and chuquipú.
Copper has been mined for centuries at Chuquicamata, as evidenced by the 1899 discovery of the "Copper Man," a mummy dated to c. 550 A.D. The mummy was found in an ancient mine shaft, apparently trapped by a rockfall. It is also related that the men of conquistador Diego de Almagro obtained copper horseshoes from the natives when he passed through in 1536.
Incas and Spanish explorers exploited the mineral deposits of Chuquicamata during the pre-colonial and colonial periods. Mining activity was relatively small scale until the War of the Pacific (1879–1883), when Chile annexed parts of both Peru and Bolivia, including Chuquicamata. At this time, a great influx of miners were drawn into the area by what was termed the 'Red Gold Fever' (La Fiebre del Oro Rojo). Soon, Chuquicamata was covered with mines and over 400 mining claims at one point. Pirquineros and Chilean and English companies mined the brochantite veins from 1879 to 1912. The development of the mines was helped by arrival of the railroad to Calama. Some copper mining were former nitrate miners. Ten individual mines (piques) existed in Chuquicamata until 1882 when these begun to consolidate and by 1883 the following mine claims existed in Chuquicamata; Zaragoza and Lérida, Amigos and San Luis. The property of the mines in Chuquicamata continued to change in the 1880s and 1890s.
It was a wild and disorganized camp. Title claims were often in doubt due to the defective 1873 Mining Code and matters were further complicated after the capture of Calama during the 1891 Chilean Civil War when rebels confiscated mines belonging to loyalists. Many miners lived in makeshift and lawless shanty towns around the mines, including Punta de Rieles, Placilla, and Banco Drummond. These settlements provided miners with alcohol, gambling, and prostitution and murder was an almost daily occurrence. The army had to be sent in to maintain order as late as 1918. The towns were eventually buried under the waste dumps to east of the mine.
These early operations mined high grade veins like the Zaragoza and Balmaceda veins, which contained concentrations of up to 10-15% copper, leaving low grade disseminated ore. One attempt was made to process the low-grade ore in 1899-1900 by Norman Walker, a partner in La Compañia de Cobres de Antofagasta, but the attempt failed, leaving the company deeply in debt. Mining was never really fully developed at this time because of a lack of water, isolation, difficulty communicating, lack of capital, and fluctuations in the copper price. Nevertheless, larger mining companies eventually emerged, organized as commercial companies rather than mining operations to work around problems with the mining code. These companies started to buy up and consolidate small mines and claims.
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Chuquicamata
Chuquicamata (/tʃuːkiːkəˈmɑːtə/ choo-kee-kə-MAH-tə; referred to as Chuqui for short) is the largest open pit copper mine in terms of excavated volume in the world.[citation needed] It is located in the north of Chile, just outside Calama, at 2,850 m (9,350 ft) above sea level. It is 215 km (134 mi) northeast of Antofagasta and 1,240 km (770 mi) north of the capital, Santiago. Flotation and smelting facilities were installed in 1952, and expansion of the refining facilities in 1968 made 500,000 tons annual copper production possible in the late 1970s. Previously part of Anaconda Copper, the mine is now owned and operated by Codelco, a Chilean state enterprise, since the Chilean nationalization of copper in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Its depth of 850 metres (2,790 ft) makes it the second deepest open-pit mine in the world, after Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah, United States.
For most of the 20th century Chuquicamata was the most productive copper mine in Chile until this position was overtaken by Escondida in 1996. Chuquicamata remained the 2nd most productive copper mine in Chile until 2011 when it was surpassed by Collahuasi and Radomiro Tomic. As of 2024 it was the fifth most productive copper mine in Chile with a produce that year of 289 kTon copper.
In April 2019 Chuquicamata started to extract minerals from its new underground mine, beginning its transition into an underground operation. While the above-ground mining was estimated to continue at most one and a half year from the start of underground operations, given their incompatibity, by May 2021 above-ground mining remained in place given delays in expanding the underground mine.
There are several versions of the meaning of Chuquicamata. The most widely known seems to be that it means the limit (camata) of the land of the Chuqui. Yet there is no record of any tribe called "chiqui" in the historical record, and the indigenous peoples known near the area are the Aymara, Quechua and Atacameño. Another interpretation is that it means metal (chuqui) tipped wooden (camata) spear. Yet another theory is that it means 'Cima de Oro' or 'Summit of Gold' in Aymara language. Some scholars consider the part chuqui analogous to that found in Quechua toponyms such as chuquisaca, chuquichuqui and chuquipú.
Copper has been mined for centuries at Chuquicamata, as evidenced by the 1899 discovery of the "Copper Man," a mummy dated to c. 550 A.D. The mummy was found in an ancient mine shaft, apparently trapped by a rockfall. It is also related that the men of conquistador Diego de Almagro obtained copper horseshoes from the natives when he passed through in 1536.
Incas and Spanish explorers exploited the mineral deposits of Chuquicamata during the pre-colonial and colonial periods. Mining activity was relatively small scale until the War of the Pacific (1879–1883), when Chile annexed parts of both Peru and Bolivia, including Chuquicamata. At this time, a great influx of miners were drawn into the area by what was termed the 'Red Gold Fever' (La Fiebre del Oro Rojo). Soon, Chuquicamata was covered with mines and over 400 mining claims at one point. Pirquineros and Chilean and English companies mined the brochantite veins from 1879 to 1912. The development of the mines was helped by arrival of the railroad to Calama. Some copper mining were former nitrate miners. Ten individual mines (piques) existed in Chuquicamata until 1882 when these begun to consolidate and by 1883 the following mine claims existed in Chuquicamata; Zaragoza and Lérida, Amigos and San Luis. The property of the mines in Chuquicamata continued to change in the 1880s and 1890s.
It was a wild and disorganized camp. Title claims were often in doubt due to the defective 1873 Mining Code and matters were further complicated after the capture of Calama during the 1891 Chilean Civil War when rebels confiscated mines belonging to loyalists. Many miners lived in makeshift and lawless shanty towns around the mines, including Punta de Rieles, Placilla, and Banco Drummond. These settlements provided miners with alcohol, gambling, and prostitution and murder was an almost daily occurrence. The army had to be sent in to maintain order as late as 1918. The towns were eventually buried under the waste dumps to east of the mine.
These early operations mined high grade veins like the Zaragoza and Balmaceda veins, which contained concentrations of up to 10-15% copper, leaving low grade disseminated ore. One attempt was made to process the low-grade ore in 1899-1900 by Norman Walker, a partner in La Compañia de Cobres de Antofagasta, but the attempt failed, leaving the company deeply in debt. Mining was never really fully developed at this time because of a lack of water, isolation, difficulty communicating, lack of capital, and fluctuations in the copper price. Nevertheless, larger mining companies eventually emerged, organized as commercial companies rather than mining operations to work around problems with the mining code. These companies started to buy up and consolidate small mines and claims.
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