Chuquicamata, Chile

Chuquicamata is the largest open pit copper mine in the world. It is located 250 km northeast to the city of Antofagasta in Chile. The mine has an elliptacal form. It has a surface of almost 8,000,000 m2 and it is 680 m deep.

The place has been exploited since pre-hispanical times. The word Chuquicamata comes from the aimara language and refers to the first inhabitants of the zone. The territory where the mine is located passed to Chilean control and sovereignty due the War of the Pacific and their subsequent treaties.

The first copper bar was produced on May 19, 1915 by the US company Guggenheim Bros. The compamy continued the mining exploitation with the names Chilean Exploration Co, Chile Copper Co., and Anaconda Co., until copper mining was nationalised and statised during the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s.

Today, Chilean Copper Corporation (Codelco), is in control of the mine. As of 2003 the city of Chuquicamata -founded as mining camp - was dismantled, due the advance of the mine. All the workers and inhabitants were relocated in the near city of