El Tofo is an

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...

mine in the

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 Norte Chico region. The mine lies in northern Coquimbo Region within a larger mining district known as the

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 ...

. Geologically El Tofo is an

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 ...

deposit. The first record of the iron ores of El Tofo dates to a 1840 study of

Ignacy Domeyko Ignacy Domeyko or Domejko, pseudonym: ''Żegota'' (, ; 31 July 1802 – 23 January 1889) was a Polish geologist, mineralogist, educator, and founder of the University of Santiago, in Chile. Domeyko spent most of his life, and died, in his adopt ...

. While the mine presents good geological aspects for 19th century mining geographical aspects made access difficult despite being close to the Pacific coast. The mine began to be exploited in 1870 but by 1955 mining diminished as the deposit were close to depletion. Subsequently the El Romeral mine was opened 30 km to the south in replacement.

Compañía de Acero del Pacífico The Compañía de Acero del Pacífico, also known by its acronym CAP, is the main iron and steel industry of Chile with its main facilities at Huachipato near the port of Talcahuano in Bío Bío Region. As result of Allende's nationalization ...

obtained the ownership of El Tofo and El Romeral in the early 1970s when it was

nationalized Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with priv ...

during the

Presidency of Salvador Allende Salvador Allende was the president of Chile from 1970 until Death of Salvador Allende, his suicide in 1973, and head of the Popular Unity (Chile), Popular Unity government; he was a Socialist Party of Chile, Socialist and the first Marxism, Mar ...

. Later the ownership passed to Compañía Minera del Pacífico as it was privatized during the

Pinochet dictatorship An authoritarian military dictatorship ruled Chile for seventeen years, between 11 September 1973 and 11 March 1990. The dictatorship was established after the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende was overthrown ...

. As of 2017 El Tofo is not active.

References

Iron ore mines in Chile Mines in Coquimbo Region Former mines in Chile {{Coquimbo-geo-stub