disseminated ore. One attempt was made to process the low grade ore in 1899-1900 by Norman Walker, a partner in La Compa�ia de Cobres de Antofagasta, but it failed leaving the company deeply in debt.However, mining never really developed satisfactorily in the early days because of the lack of water, the isolation and lack of communications, lack of capital and fluctuations in the copper price. Nevertheless larger mining companies eventually emerged, organised as commercial rather than mining operations to avoid the imperfections of the mining code, and started to buy up and consolidate the small mines and claims.
The modern mine
Mine's waste rock dumped by a giant truck
The modern era started when the American engineer Bradley finally developed a method of working low grade oxidised copper ores. In 1910 he approached the lawyer and industrialist Albert C Burrage who sent engineers to examine Chuquicamata. Their reports were good and in April 1911 he started to buy up mines and claims, mainly from the larger mining companies, in association with Duncan Fox y Cia., an English entrepreneur.
Since Burrage did not have the capital to develop a mine, he approached the Guggenheim Brothers. They examined his claims and estimated reserves at 690 million tonnes grading 2.58% copper. The Guggenheims also had a process for treating the low grade ores developed by Elias Anton Cappelen Smith and were immediately interested, organised the Chile Exploration Company (Chilex) in January 1912 and eventually bought out Burrage for US$25 million in Chilex stock. E. A. Cappelen Smith, consulting metallurgist for M. Guggenheim's Sons, worked out the first process for the treatment of Chuquicamata copper oxide ore about 1913, and directed a staff of engineers operating a pilot plant at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, on three shifts for an entire year.
Chilex then went ahead with the development and construction of a mine on the eastern section of the
