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Chuquicamata
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Chuquicamata

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Chuquicamata ( ; referred to as Chuqui for short) is the largest open pit copper mine in terms of excavated volume in the world. It is located in the north of Chile, just outside Calama, at above sea level. It is northeast of Antofagasta and 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

Key facts

Mine.name
Chuquicamata
Mine.image
Mina de Chuquicamata, Calama, Chile, 2016-02-01, DD 110-112 PAN.JPG
Mine.width
250px
Mine.caption
The pit viewed from entrance
Mine.pushpin_map
Chile Antofagasta Region#Chile
Mine.pushpin_label
Chuquicamata
Mine.pushpin_map_caption
Location in Chile
Mine.pushpin_mapsize
150
Mine.subdivision_type
Region
Mine.state/province
Antofagasta Region
Mine.country
Chile
Mine.owner
Codelco
Mine.products
Copper, gold
Mine.financial year
2024
Mine.amount
289 kTon copper
Mine.opening year
1882

via Wikipedia infobox

Described at

ICMM - Global Mining Dataset: Understanding the global distribution of mining and metals facilities

Demand for minerals is rising, but debates on mining and metals' impact are stalled by fragmented data. ICMM is undertaking a multi-year initiative to build comprehensive, transparent datasets, starting with a global overview of mining and processing facilities.

icmm.com

Link to a page describing this subject · 23,560 chars · not written by Vinony

~14 min read

Encyclopedic overview

12 sections
Contents
  • Etymology
  • History
  • Beginning of modern mine and Guggenheim era (1910–1923)
  • Anaconda Copper era (1923–1971)
  • Codelco era (1971–present)
  • Geology
  • Economic effects
  • Climate
  • See also
  • References
  • Further reading
  • External links

Chuquicamata ( ; referred to as Chuqui for short) is the largest open pit copper mine in terms of excavated volume in the world. It is located in the north of Chile, just outside Calama, at above sea level. It is northeast of Antofagasta and 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 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.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Chuquicamata” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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