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Illegal Mining In Chile
Illegal mining is a concern in Chile. As of 2025 it was considered to be on the rise but still far below the levels of neighbouring countries like Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. In 2024 there were 20 formal complaints of illegal mining before the National Geology and Mining Service. There is as of 2025 no large-scale illegal mining in Chile. Illegal mining is greatly overrepresented relative to legal mining in deadly accidents in Chile. The fact that most small-scale mining in Chile focus on copper, which means handling large volumes difficult to smuggle or hide has been thought to be a contributing factor to the low levels of illegal mining. The term '' chucullero'' is sometimes used pejoratively for artisan miners known as ''pirquineros'' who carry out illegal mining, but this is not always the case as ''chucullero'' also refers more generally to any ''pirquinero'' specialized in precious metals, mostly gold. Some communes where illegal mining have been reported in the 20 ...
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Illegal Mining
Illegal mining is mining activity that is undertaken without state permission. Illegal mining is the extraction of precious metals/rocks without following the proper procedures to participate in legal mining activity. These procedures include permits and licenses for exploration of the land, mining and transportation.  Illegal mining can be a subsistence activity, as is the case with artisanal mining, or it can belong to large-scale/Rocks organized crime, spearheaded by illegal mining syndicates. On an international level, approximately 80 percent of small-scale mining operations can be categorized as illegal. Despite strategic developments towards "responsible mining," even big companies can be involved in illegal mineral digging and extraction, if only on the financing side. Large-scale mining operations are owned by large companies nationally and use advanced technology to extract metals; these operations use open-pit mining. Artisanal small-scale mining operations ...
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Copiapó
Copiapó () is a List of cities in Chile, city and communes of Chile, commune in northern Chile, located about 65 kilometers east of the coastal List of towns in Chile, town of Caldera, Chile, Caldera. Founded on December 8, 1744, it is the capital of Copiapó Province and Atacama Region. Copiapó lies about 800 km north of Santiago, Chile, Santiago by the Copiapó River, in the valley of the same name. In the early 21st century, the river has dried up in response to climate change and more severe droughts. The town is surrounded by the Atacama Desert and receives 12 mm (½ in) of rain per year. The population of Copiapó was 9,128 in 1903; and 11,617 in 1907. As of 2012, there are 158,438 inhabitants. Copiapó is in a rich silver and copper mining in Chile, copper mining district, and while it attends large-scale mining operations further afar it is the central town of surrounding medium-scale mining mining district. A bronze statue commemorates Juan Godoy, discoverer ...
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Gold Mining In Chile
The amount of gold mined in Chile has fluctuated in the 2010–2023 period from a high of 50,852 kg in 2013 to a low of 30,907 kg in 2022. Also in the same period 36% to 72% of the gold produced annually in Chile was a by-product of copper mining. The share of medium and small-scale mining in gold production in Chile has dropped from an average of 45% for the 2003–2005 period to 9% in 2023. Most of the economically viable gold deposits in Chile belong to two types of deposits; high-sulfidation epithermal and porphyry type. The bulk of these deposits formed in the last 66 millions years (Cenozoic) in connection to magmatic activity in the Andes. Gold from iron oxide copper gold ore deposits (IOCG), from mesothermal deposits, or of Mesozoic age (formed 66 to 252 million years ago) may in some cases be recurrent geological features but lack often large concentrations to make them profitable. Almost all valuable non-placer gold in Chile occur in the northern half of the country an ...
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Environmental Issues In Chile
Environmental issues in Chile include deforestation, water scarcity, pollution, soil erosion, climate change, and biodiversity loss, especially in its industry-heavy "sacrifice zones". The country of Chile is a virtual continental island that spans over (2,600 miles) 4,200 kilometers. It is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Andes Mountains on the east, and the Atacama Desert in the north; it is home to several important eco-regions, such as the Chilean Winter Rainfall- Valdivian Forests, a biodiversity hot-spot that harbors richly endemic flora and fauna, and the Tropical Andes, which stretches into northern Chile. The country has a wide variety of climates due to its large size and extreme geographical features including glaciers, volcanoes, rain forests, and deserts. Chile faces many environmental issues that impact both its people and economy. Prominent issues There are a series of environmental issues in this country, with a dynamic and diversified economy. Chile' ...
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Vicuña, Chile
Vicuña () is a Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...an Communes of Chile, commune and List of cities in Chile, city in Elqui Province, Coquimbo Region, founded during the government of Bernardo O'Higgins to secure sovereignty over the Elqui Valley (wine region), Elqui Valley. Poet Gabriela Mistral was born there in 1889. It shares borders to the west with the communes of La Higuera, La Serena, Chile, La Serena and Andacollo, to the east with Argentina and to the south with Paihuano and Hurtado River, Rio Hurtado. The commune is administered by the municipality of Vicuña, which is the principal city of the Valle de Elqui. History Vicuña was founded on February 22, 1821, by Colonel Joaquín Vicuña Larraín, who was the first intendant of Coquimbo Region, Coquimb ...
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El Indio Gold Belt
The El Indio Gold Belt is a mineral-rich region spanning the border between Chile and Argentina that contains large quantities of gold, silver and copper. On both sides of the border the belt is located within the Andes. The El Indio mine within the district was the first modern mine in Chile to produce gold as its main product. In Chile the main precious metal containing mineral is enargite. The El Indio belt is bordered in the north by another gold-silver mining district known as the Frontera District. Rodalquilarite, alunite and poughite are some of the minerals present in the area. The deposits of the belt formed during the Late Miocene period. The world's largest gold mining company, Barrick Gold, used to be the only foreign company heavily invested in the region however more recently a number of other companies have begun exploratory activity. History In Chile the district was first officially recognized in 1975 and operated in 1979. El Indio, the main mine in the are ...
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El Indio Mine
El Indio is a closed gold mine in the Andes of Coquimbo Region, Chile. The mine lies at about 4,000 m a.s.l. in the catchment of Elqui River about 10 km west of the Argentina–Chile border. The mine lies in a larger gold district known as El Indio Gold Belt. Some gold-rich veins of El Indio were exploited by ''pirquineros'' in 1972 and 1973 and ore was moved downhill with mules until a point where trucks could load it. The early ores extracted from the area of El Indio were of poor quality given their high arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol As and atomic number 33. It is a metalloid and one of the pnictogens, and therefore shares many properties with its group 15 neighbors phosphorus and antimony. Arsenic is not ... content steming from the enargite. Geologist from ENAMI (Chile), ENAMI studied the area the summer of 1974 concluding the deposits were of a type unheard of in Chile but described in the literature from Japan, Mexico, t ...
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Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
Carbon monoxide poisoning typically occurs from breathing in carbon monoxide (CO) at excessive levels. Symptoms are often described as " flu-like" and commonly include headache, dizziness, weakness, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. Large exposures can result in loss of consciousness, arrhythmias, seizures, or death. The classically described "cherry red skin" rarely occurs. Long-term complications may include chronic fatigue, trouble with memory, and movement problems. CO is a colorless and odorless gas which is initially non-irritating. It is produced during incomplete burning of organic matter. This can occur from motor vehicles, heaters, or cooking equipment that run on carbon-based fuels. Carbon monoxide primarily causes adverse effects by combining with hemoglobin to form carboxyhemoglobin (symbol COHb or HbCO) preventing the blood from carrying oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide as carbaminohemoglobin. Additionally, many other hemoproteins such as myoglob ...
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Llanos De Challe National Park
Llanos de Challe National Park is located on the Pacific coast of the Atacama Region, Chile. The nearly-rainless park's mountains are moistened by the Camanchaca, creating a fog and mist-fed ecosystem called lomas (Spanish for "hills"). The park is one of the southernmost locations of the lomas which are scattered along the coastal desert from northern Chile to northern Peru. The highest elevation in the park is ''Cerro Negro'' at 950 m. This fragile coastal desert ecosystem is habitat for rare and beautiful plants species, including the threatened ''Leontochir ovallei'', known locally as ''Garra de León''. In addition to, cactus are abundant in the park. The park is one of the best places for contemplating the natural phenomenon known as ''desierto florido'' ( desert bloom), which occurs occasionally as a consequence of rains brought to the park by El Niño-Southern Oscillation. The park has the largest population of guanacos in the Atacama Region. The park's seashore and sur ...
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Patagonia
Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers in the west and Patagonian Desert, deserts, Plateaus, tablelands, and steppes to the east. Patagonia is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and many bodies of water that connect them, such as the Strait of Magellan, the Beagle Channel, and the Drake Passage to the south. The northern limit of the region is not precisely defined; the Colorado River, Argentina, Colorado and Barrancas River, Barrancas rivers, which run from the Andes to the Atlantic, are commonly considered the northern limit of Argentine Patagonia. The archipelago of Tierra del Fuego is sometimes considered part of Patagonia. Most geographers and historians locate the northern limit of Chilean Patagonia at Huincul Fault, in Araucanía R ...
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Placer Deposit
In geology, a placer deposit or placer is an accumulation of valuable minerals formed by gravity separation from a specific source rock during sedimentary processes. The name is from the Spanish language, Spanish word ''placer'', meaning "alluvium, alluvial sand". Placer mining is an important source of gold, and was the main technique used in the early years of many gold rushes, including the California Gold Rush. Types of placer deposits include alluvium, eluvium, beach placers, aeolian placers and paleo-placers. Placer materials must be both dense and resistant to weathering processes. To accumulate in placers, mineral particles must have a specific gravity above 2.58. Placer environments typically contain black sand, a conspicuous shiny black mixture of iron oxides, mostly magnetite with variable amounts of ilmenite and hematite. Valuable mineral components often occurring with black sands are monazite, rutile, zircon, chromite, wolframite, and cassiterite. Early mining opera ...
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La Tercera
(), formerly known as (), is a daily newspaper published in Santiago, Chile and owned by Copesa. It is s closest competitor. is part of Periódicos Asociados Latinoamericanos ( Latin American Newspaper Association), an organization of fourteen leading newspapers in South America. History The newspaper ''La Tercera'' was founded on July 7, 1950, by the Picó Cañas family. Initially known as ''La Tercera de la Hora'', it served as the evening edition of the now defunct newspaper ''La Hora''. In the 1950s, it transitioned from being associated with ''La Hora'' and transformed into a morning paper. While initially affiliated with the Radical Party, ''La Tercera'' ended this association in 1965, becoming more politically independent and disconnected from any party, government system, or religious affiliation. During the early 1970s, the newspaper strongly opposed Salvador Allende's government and supported the September 11 military coup in 1973, as well as General Augusto Pino ...
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