Cerro Negro Norte is an

open-pit Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique that extracts rock (geology), rock or minerals from the earth. Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially ...

iron mine Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's ou ...

in northern

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 ...

about 28 km north of the port of the city of

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 capi ...

. The ore of the mine is one of various

iron oxide-apatite Iron is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the abundance of the chemical ...

(IOA) ores that are part of the north-south

Chilean Iron Belt The Chilean Iron Belt is a geological province rich in iron ore deposits in northern Chile. It extends as a north-south beld along the western part of the Chilean regions of Coquimbo and Atacama, chiefly between the cities of La Serena and Talt ...

. The mine opened in 2010 and in 2021 it had a production of 4,000,000 metric tons of iron. It produces iron ore concentrate that is trasnported as pulp in pipelines to the port of

Punta Totoralillo Punta Totoralillo is an industrial port for export of mining products of Atacama Region, Chile. The port serves the iron mine of Cerro Negro Norte and receives iron ore concentrate (>66% Fe) from Planta Magnetita through a 120 km-long burie ...

located 55 km northwest of the mine.

References

Iron ore mines in Chile Mines in Atacama Region Open-pit mines Surface mines in Chile Compañía Minera del Pacífico {{Mine-stub