Chuquicamata Research Articles

El Lugar de las mujeres y la familia en la historia del yacimiento estatal de Chuquicamata entre 1970 y 2020

Over a century of existence, Chuquicamata-CODELCO company in Chile has deployed strategies that strengthen identities and loyalties that underlie a hegemonic model of male dominance, so far without counterpoint in Chilean mining. In this article, we explore how the copper industry has shaped subjectivities, social relations and loyalties among workers at the Chuquicamata mine from a gender perspective. We explore the interaction between the concreteness of the copper activity and the process of subjectivation that has generated, on the one hand, shared identities and, on the other, particular social configurations. We also observe practices of constitution of masculinized mining bodies and the way in which they are linked to family and work identities developed in different domestic and productive spaces and controlled in different ways by the company.

From a political to an im-political community: The end of the company town (Tocopilla, Chile, 1915-1996)

By using a historical and anthropological methodology, this paper describes and analyzes the urban case study of Tocopilla, Chile, a city that, as a result of the industrialization of the Chuquicamata mine in 1915 by The Chile Exploration Company, saw the installation of a powerful thermoelectric power plant that included a Company town, which operated under the same rules as the Chuquicamata camp. The thermoelectric plant, nationalized in 1971, remained under the management of CODELCO, before being privatized in 1996. Thus, the new company dissociated itself from the paternalistic control of workers and their housing, permitting the emergence of a process that brought an end to the Company town. This paper looks to characterize the organizational, material, and semantic transition seen in the settlement since 1996, understood as a process that took place under a neoliberal setting, which the authors have called the transition from a political to an im-political community.

"Los indios comunistas solo han generado daños y reclamos injustos”

This article draws on documentary and newspaper sources to examine the historical process of labor conflict at the Tocopilla thermoelectric plant, which has powered the Chuquicamata mine since 1915. These conflicts deepened after the 1947 enactment of the Law of Permanent Defense of Democracy under Chilean President Gabriel González Videla. The US company used the anti-communist law to stop workers from protesting against job insecurity, low wages and dangerous working conditions. Thus, in conjunction with State agents, the mining company’s political ideology led to persecutions, proscriptions and imprisonments based on the adjectives ‘communists’ and ‘Indians’ – the latter in the context of the mining colonialism experienced in the Atacama Desert.

Baseball in the Atacama Desert: From Elitist Sport to Popular Identity in Tocopilla, Chile (1915–1971)

During the second decade of the twentieth century, with the industrialization of the Chuquicamata mine (Atacama Desert, Chile), workers from an American mining company introduced baseball to the inhabitants of the city of Tocopilla. From an elite sport practised by the Americans and embodying social segregation, baseball evolved into a widespread social practice that identified the city at a national level. Local communities adopted baseball, becoming a sport with solid labour, ethnic, economic, and political identity. In addition, the mining capitalists instrumentalized the popular triumph of baseball to create better social relationships between American and local workers and to improve the company’s corporate image.

Los pueblos libres de Chuquicamata

This article analyzes the three main mining towns that predated and coexisted with the Chuquicamata mine and company town in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries: Punta de Rieles, Placilla and Banco Drummond. The urban developments that emerged around copper mines as mining growth exploded in the last decades of the nineteenth century show how unique social dynamics developed in a rapidly restructured productive, labor, and sociocultural environment. Using descriptions of the settlements from the local press and writings from the period, this paper explores the tensions, regulations and resistance that ensued from interactions between the towns, the industrial mine and new company town, and the mining company.

Anti-communism, labour exploitation, and racism at the thermoelectric plant of the world’s largest copper mine (Tocopilla, Chile, 1948-1958)

ABSTRACT In Tocopilla, a port in northern Chile, a thermoelectric plant was installed to supply with electricity the Chuquicamata mine, the world’s largest copper mine during most of the twentieth century. In a context of strikes and socioeconomic demands against labour exploitation and work precariousness, the American owners of Chuquicamata took advantage of an anti-communist law to prevent workers’ organizations and their claims. Moreover, the workers who were labelled as ‘communists’ were also labelled as ‘Indians’ in the context of mining colonialism. The paper examines the historical process of construction of ‘race’ in a political situation that had a profound impact on the lives of Chilean workers in the Atacama Desert.

Tele-production of miningscapes in the open-pit era: The case of low-grade copper, Bingham Canyon, US and Chuquicamata, Chile (1903–1923)

In 1906, the Guggenheim Exploration Company (GUGGENEX), financed the low-grade copper project that Daniel Cowen Jackling had started three years earlier at Bingham Canyon (Utah, US). With GUGGENEX's investment, the exploitation of copper entered into the open-pit mining era. Nine years later, the Guggenheims applied the industrial experience acquired in Bingham Canyon in the opening of the Chuquicamata Mine (northern Chile). In both cases, all the crucial decisions about the mining were made in Manhattan, New York, while the local territories faced these projects' outcomes. From a geohistorical standpoint, and through the analysis of several archives, in this paper, we explore how the extractive territories associated with these mines were remotely produced, transformed, and redefined; becoming “teleconnected miningscapes”. We aimed to visualize how the cross-sector partnership between large economic groups—GUGGENEX—and scientific personalities was essential in the emergence of open-pit copper mining. We argue that the miningscapes produced in Bingham Canyon and Chuquicamata mines are an entanglement of scientific discourses, research (geology and metallurgy), materialities (capital and technology), human bodies (workers) and nature (copper porphyries, water, air, etc.) that were unevenly and remotely produced from the headquarters of GUGGENEX.

Emergency plan methodology for mine fire simulations in Chuquicamata underground mine

ABSTRACT The main objective of this study is to use fire risk analysis (FRA) as input to fire simulations to support development of a fire emergency plan strategy (EPS) at the Chuquicamata underground mine in Chile. This paper also describes how to classify zones that will be affected by fumes and gas propagation from the exact location of a fire event. The fire simulation study helps to determine the impact of a fire on a ventilation system, with the main purpose of providing relevant information to complement emergency plans and established control techniques in ventilation design and operation. Most fire simulation studies only concentrate on simulation techniques themselves, but this work moves beyond to ask: “What is the next step in developing an emergency plan? How can we evaluate, classify, and treat risky areas?” This study is primarily focused on the phases before and after a fire simulation process corresponding to a good FRA and how output data can be utilized for an EPS. Under construction since 2013, the Chuquicamata underground mine is one of the main projects for the Chilean government copper company, Codelco. It presents a solution to the lower production levels associated with open-pit mining and prolongs the life of the mine for the next 40 years, until 2060. Currently, approximately 2,000 workers operate in the Chuquicamata mine daily. Dozens of trucks and heavy machines drive through all main routes and accesses in the mine. Since the mine is still under construction, not all infrastructure necessary to operate safely in the mine has been completed. Risk of a truck or fixed facility fire is always a challenge. One important aspect of fire simulation relies on what we can do to prevent a fire and what can be done with the existing infrastructure to control a declared fire and initiate evacuation plans. This study presents a feasible emergency plan to implement in a mine under construction where limited resources are available. Several fire scenarios support the emergency plan strategy and a detailed step-by-step procedure indicates the elements of the fire emergency plan and risk analysis.

“¿En qué gana Tocopilla?... ¡En Béisbol!” De segregación a identidad: El desarrollo del Béisbol en una sociedad minera bajo hegemonía estadounidense.

En este artículo, examinamos y describimos la llegada del béisbol a la ciudad de Tocopilla como una práctica deportiva que se desarrolló desde la segregación socioeconómica por parte de extranjeros durante el contexto de la industrialización de la mina Chuquicamata y en el contexto de la chilenización de la posguerra. Examinamos cómo esta práctica deportiva segregada, durante el siglo XX, se convirtió en la base principal de una identidad deportiva popular de una localidad en el escenario nacional.

Atmospheric deposition across the Atacama Desert, Chile: Compositions, source distributions, and interannual comparisons

Hyper-arid areas such as the Atacama Desert accumulated significant amounts of insoluble dust and soluble salts from the atmosphere, providing minable salt deposits as well as mimicking the surface processes on Mars. The deposition rates, compositions and sources, however, were poorly constrained. Especially, the variabilities of atmospheric deposition in the Atacama Desert corresponding to a changing climate were unassessed. In this work, the atmospheric depositions collected using dust traps across a west-east elevation gradient in the Atacama (~23°S) from 1/2/2010 to 12/31/2011 were analyzed and compared to previous results in 2007–2009. The insoluble dust deposition rates in our sampling period were significantly higher than those of 2007–2009 in most dust traps, which was attributed to the changes in wind, highlighting the importance of long-term monitoring of insoluble dust fluxes. Soluble salts, instead, showed less distinct interannual variations in deposition rates, geochemical compositions or source contributions. At the coastal site (T1), soluble salts were originated from both primary sea-salt (SS) aerosols and non-sea-salt (NSS) sources such as anthropogenic emission, marine biogenic emission and biomass burning; the deposition rates of these salts largely depended on the wind speed and the amount of anthropogenic emissions. Sulfur isotopic evidence further showed that NSS sulfate at T1 was mainly originated from local SO2 emission from local power plants. The inland sites (T2-T8) displayed much lower soluble salts deposition rates, and the salts were primarily sourced from entrainment of local surface minerals, including Na(Cl, NO3), CaSO4, and nitrate formed via atmospheric oxidation of anthropogenic NOx. Sulfur isotopic compositions of sulfate deposited at T2-T8 were similar to those in local surface soil; however, three sites near the Chuquicamata mine showed slightly lower δ34Ssulfate values, indicating the presence of secondary sulfate originated from mining activities. The soluble salts deposited at the Andean site (T10) were dominantly from wet deposition that incorporated local lake salts, and therefore, the deposition rates were mainly controlled by the amount of precipitation.

A transition from a large open pit into a novel “macroblock variant” block caving geometry at Chuquicamata mine, Codelco Chile

With a history of more than 100 years, Chuquicamata has become one of the largest open pits in the world. Its current depth of 1100 m, length of 4500 m and width of 3000 m, resulting in haulage distances of over 11,000 m from pit bottom to the processing plant or waste dumps, with waste/ore ratio greater than 4 and much lower grades, are effectively determining its profitable limit by the end of this decade. Currently, there are over 4300 Mt of geological resources containing 0.7% of copper and 340 ppm (1 ppm = 1 g/t) of molybdenum below the final pit shell. The corresponding orebody geometry is 3000 m northsouth, 300–800 m eastwest and the drilling campaign suggested the existence of more than 900 m of mineable ore from the final pit bottom. This is in spite of the fact that the Chuquicamata orebody is still open at depth. The business case to continue with the mining of the Chuquicamata orebody is to change from the current large open pit to a novel macroblock variant block caving geometry. This requires a production rate of 140,000 t/d (50 Mt per annum), with a continuous material handling system to achieve the 7-year ramp-up to full production. The resolution of a number of known technical, operational and logistical challenges outside current industry practises which Chuquicamata will face over its projected 40-year mine life is therefore essential. These challenges include simultaneous operations of open pit and underground macroblocks and from the initial lift to the second lift, rapid ramp-up and optimum sequencing of the planned macroblocks, early dilution from the west fault and late dilution from potential slope failures, and the potential for major operational hazards. An equally important issue to be addressed is cultural given that the mining history in the northern region of Chile, which includes Chuquicamata, is predominantly open pit. This paper presents a synopsis of the main challenges that the Chuquicamata underground project will face in order to meet the objectives of its corresponding business case. Those discussed and how they were resolved are: simultaneous operations, rapid ramp-up and optimum sequencing of the planned macroblocks, and early and late dilutions. The project is an example of the fact that there are no recipes or cook books in cave mining.

Element cycling during the transition from alkaline to acidic environment in an active porphyry copper tailings impoundment, Chuquicamata, Chile

In an active tailings impoundment, we studied the evolution of freshly deposited tailings from alkaline, unoxidized to acidic, oxidized tailings tracing changes in pore water quality, mineralogy, and element pathways. The tailings originate from the giant porphyry copper deposit Chuquicamata (Chile), and were deposited in different basins with varying times of surface exposure (0 to five years) to the hyper-arid climate in the Atacama desert.Fresh alkaline tailings (pH9.1) had high concentrations of dissolved Na (1773mg/L), Ca (556mg/L), SO4 (2496mg/L) and Cl (1678mg/L) due to dissolution of primary gypsum, and high dissolved element concentrations in the flotation process water due to recycling of water from the tailings impoundment. High As and Mo concentrations resulted from desorption processes during the flotation, with minor contributions from As-rich river water and recycled tailings water.After draining of free water in freshly deposited tailings, evaporation-driven capillary rise was the dominant water transport in the vadose zone. In younger tailings (up to three years), the pH decreased due to sulfide oxidation to circumneutral values (6.4–8.6). The capillary fringe reached 1m depth, where ongoing evaporation enriched Na (up to 5483mg/L), K (742mg/L), and Cl (6892mg/L). In the vadose zone above 1m, the high daily temperature amplitude resulted in condensation of pore water in the uppermost 80cm of sedimented tailings. Subsequent capillary rise depleted uppermost tailings in soluble phases and increase superficial salt precipitation (halite, gypsum and Na–K–Ca–Mg sulfates).After four years, a 13cm thick oxidation zone with acidic pH (4.7) evolved. After five years, a well-defined oxidation zone (28cm thickness) with low pH (3.8) and high mobility of heavy metals was found (e.g., 247mg/L Fe, 177mg/L Cu, 61.8mg/L Zn). This mobility allowed transport and enrichment in the efflorescent salt crust (e.g., as Cu sulfates devilline, krohnkite and Cu-chlorides eriochalcite and atacamite), with SO4 dominantly from sulfide oxidation (−1.0 to 5.9‰ δ34S, −1.0 to 4.4‰ δ18Osulfates). Stable isotope data suggest that capillary rise from the water table reached the surface, most probably due to the reduction of pore size by precipitating secondary minerals, decreased water loss by clogging of pores and heat isolation by the efflorescent salt crust.The cycles of surface exposure and new tailings deposition in the last decades resulted in buried former oxidation zones, which showed lesser K and Cu concentrations in Fe oxides than recent oxidized tailings, most probably due to the transformation of jarosite and schwertmannite to Fe(3+) oxyhydroxides and dissolution of Cu sulfates.Pore water in the saturated deep tailings was highly dynamic and displayed influences of local groundwater, and mixing with acid rock drainage (ARD) and fresh tailings water, both infiltrating from the surface.At the tailings dam, seepage water varied in time between neutralized ARD and fresh tailings water with groundwater influence, due to the periodic shift of the deposition zone and the resulting shallow groundwater changes. Adjacent efflorescent salts include typical minerals found in the secondary porphyry copper deposits in northern Chile (e.g., atacamite), displaying the similarity between geochemical processes in weathered tailings impoundments and secondary enrichment zones of ore bodies, like Exotica from the Chuquicamata mine.

Competing rationalities in water conflict: Mining and the indigenous community in Chiu Chiu, El Loa Province, northern Chile

Conflict over water is a significant phenomenon in many parts of the world where globally linked neoliberal economic activities encroach on the lands of indigenous peoples. This case study from Chile examines how water scarcity affecting indigenous agricultural communities in the Chilean Altiplano has been exacerbated by legally sanctioned mining‐related practices. Notably, the legal framing of the 1981 Water Code promotes private ownership of water rights and enhanced mining activity usually at the expense of the ancestral territorial rights of indigenous communities. In the case of the Atacameño community of Chiu Chiu, a serious decrease in subsistence and agriculture production has been suffered as a consequence of reduced flow in the Loa River, resulting from the water intensive needs and extraction practices of the nearby Chuquicamata mine owned by Codelco, the National Copper Corporation of Chile. Via an analysis of the political ecology of competing rationalities this paper explores how an economic rationality based on utilitarian and reductionist thinking manifested by Codelco has taken precedence locally over a socionatural rationality grounded in holistic thinking and sustainability concerns as articulated by the Chiu Chiu community.

Development and commercial demonstration of the BioCOP™ thermophile process

The paper describes the engineering development of the BioCOP™ Process, from pilot-scale to full-scale commercial demonstration at the Chuquicamata Mine in Chile, with a design production rate of 20 000 t copper per annum. BioCOP™ Process is owned by BHP Billiton. The BioCOP™ Process has been specifically developed for treatment of concentrates not suitable for commercial smelting due to the content of deleterious elements, such as arsenic, which is harmful to the environment. The process utilises thermophilic microorganisms operating at temperatures up to 80 °C to leach copper sulphide mineral concentrates. The copper is subsequently recovered by conventional solvent extraction and electrowinning, producing a high value copper metal product. The paper describes the importance of staged development to ensure correct definition of scale-up criteria for commercial plant design. The design and operation of the Commercial Demonstration Plant is also described a “World First” for bioleaching using thermophilic microorganisms for commercial treatment of primary copper sulphide concentrates.

The production of copper in 6th century Chile’s chuquicamata mine

In 1899, an extremely well-preserved mummy from the sixth century A.D. was found at the well-known Chilean mining site, Chuquicamata. The mummy was determined to be a young indigenous miner who died in 550 A.D. ± 40 years. In the sixth century, the known technology used to produce copper metal from minerals must have been the reduction of copper oxides using charcoal with blown air. Minerals were abundantly available at Chuquicamata in 1899, and native copper could also be found. Their reduction using charcoal combustion must have required temperatures greater than those necessary for the copper oxides, copper carbonates, and native copper. This study shows that the miner could have melted copper metal by using sodium nitrate, which is abundant in local soil, to create an exothermic reaction in which combustion reached a temperature of more than 1,200°C.

The application of PGNAA borehole logging for copper grade estimation at Chuquicamata mine

The field trials of a prompt gamma neutron activation (PGNAA) spectrometric logging method and instrumentation (SIROLOG) for copper grade estimation in production holes of a porphyry type copper ore mine, Chuquicamata in Chile, are described. Examples of data analysis, calibration procedures and copper grade profiles are provided. The field tests have proved the suitability of the PGNAA logging system for in situ quality control of copper ore.

APPLICATION OF APATITE (U-Th)/He THERMOCHRONOLOGY TO THE DETERMINATION OF THE SENSE AND AMOUNT OF VERTICAL DISPLACEMENT AT THE CHUQUICAMATA PORPHYRY COPPER DISTRICT, CHILE - A REPLY

Landscape evolution is a phrase used increasingly in the lexicon of economic geologists, but the interpretation of the low-temperature thermochronology data used to quantitatively constrain terrain modification processes is subtle and generally non-intuitive to workers using other geochronological techniques to determine absolute ages (e.g., what is the age of ore formation or granite emplacement?). The main purpose of the McInnes et al. (1999) paper was to demonstrate the potential application of the new (U-Th)/He dating technique to the paleoreconstruction of fault-related ore districts. We reported results from a pilot project conducted at the Chuquicamata mine in northern Chile, and view our original conclusion as a …

Tracing the Veins: Of Copper, Culture, and Community from Butte to Chuquicamata. Janet L. Finn

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsTracing the Veins: Of Copper, Culture, and Community from Butte to Chuquicamata. Janet L. Finn Barbara SuttonBarbara Sutton Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Sociology Volume 105, Number 4Jan., 2000 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/210412 Views: 9Total views on this site Copyright 2000 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Truncated Pareto Law and Oresize Distribution of Ground Rocks

We have studied the lower and upper truncated Pareto law. This distribution depends on three parameters, the upper and the lower bounds and a parameter m which measures whether the distribution concentrates on larger or smaller values of the variable. We have constructed a test for the null hypothesis H0:m = 1, which has a special significance from a theoretical point of view and also because in the samples that we consider, the estimation of m lies around 1. The truncated Pareto law is considered in the study of size frequency of rock fragmentation and we illustrate it with data corresponding to the ore size of rocks feeding an SAG mill at Chuquicamata mine in Chile. The data are the weights of the rocks for some classes defined by their mesh size and we propose an estimation method in its analysis.

Geomechanics for slope design at Chuquicamata Mine, Chile : Manuel, R C; Guillermo, K L Proc International Symposium on Engineering in Complex Rock Formations, Beijing, 3–7 November, 1986P399–407. Publ Beijing: Science Press, 1986

Geomechanics for slope design at Chuquicamata Mine, Chile : Manuel, R C; Guillermo, K L Proc International Symposium on Engineering in Complex Rock Formations, Beijing, 3–7 November, 1986P399–407. Publ Beijing: Science Press, 1986