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Concept
Chuquicamata
Summary
Chuquicamata (tʃuːkiːkəˈmɑːtə ; 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.
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 Chucos (chuqui). Another interpretation is that it means metal (chuqui) tipped wooden (camata) spear. A third interpretation is that it means the distance (camata) that a spear (chuqui) was thrown by an Atacameño to determine the size of the copper orebody that a god intended to give him. Yet, another theory is that it means 'Pico de Oro' or 'Peak of Gold'.
Incas and Spanish explorers exploited the mineral deposits of Chuquicamata during the pre-colonial and colonial periods, and Chilean and English companies mined the brochantite veins from 1879 to 1912. The opencast was the biggest pit in the world during the 1990s, but has since been surpassed by the Escondida mine, which is now the world's largest producing mine, with 750,000 metric tons of annual productions (5.6% of the world's production in 2000). Copper has been mined for centuries at Chuquicamata, as evidenced by the 1899 discovery of the "Copper Man," a mummy dated to 550 A.D. The mummy was found in an ancient mine shaft, apparently trapped by a rockfall— It is also related that Pedro de Valdivia obtained copper horseshoes from the natives when he passed through in the early 16th century.
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