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History of Chuquicamata


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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 says that it means metal (chuqui) tipped wooden (camata) spear. A third says that it means the distance (camata) that a spear (chuqui) was thrown by an Atacame�o to determine the size of the copper orebody that a god intended to give him as a reward. Yet another theory is that it means 'Pico de Oro' or 'Peak of Gold'.

Copper has been mined for centuries at Chuquicamata as was shown by the discovery in 1899 of "Copper Man", a mummy dated at about 550 A.D. which was found trapped in an ancient mine shaft by a fall of rock. It is also said that Pedro de Valdivia obtained copper horseshoes from the natives when he passed through in the early 16th Century.

Mining activity was relatively small scale until the War of the Pacific when Chile annexed large areas of both Peru and Bolivia north of its old border, which included Chuquicamata. There was then a great influx of miners into the area drawn in by 'Red Gold Fever' (La Fiebre del Oro Rojo) and soon Chuquicamata was covered with mines and mining claims, over 400 at one point. It was a wild and disorganised camp. Title to claims was often in doubt due to the defective 1873 Mining Code, and the capture of Calama by the 1891 Civil War rebels who confiscated mines belonging to loyalists further complicated titles. Many of the miners lived in makeshift and lawless shanty towns around the mines, including Punta de Rieles, Placilla and Banco Drummond, which provided alcohol, gambling and prostitution and where murder was almost a daily occurrence. As late as 1918 the army had to be sent in to keep order. They were eventually buried under the waste dumps to the east of the mine.

These early operations mined veins such as the Zaragoza and Balmaceda, which were high grade with values up to 10-15% copper, and disregarded the low grade
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