The Biobío Region is one of Chile's sixteen regions. With a population of 1.5 million, thus being the third most populated region in Chile, it is divided into three provinces: Arauco, Biobío and Concepción. The latter contains its capital and largest city, Concepción, a major city and metro area in the country. Los Ángeles, capital of the Biobío Province, is another important city in the region.
Cañete is a city and commune in Chile, located in the Arauco Province of the Biobío Region. It is located 135 km to the south of Concepción. Cañete is known as a "Historic City" as it is one of the oldest cities in the country. The Battle of Tucapel and Pedro de Valdivia's death happened near the city's current location. Cañete was also an important location in the Arauco War.
The Biobío River is the second largest river in Chile. It originates from Icalma and Galletué lakes in the Andes and flows 380 km to the Gulf of Arauco on the Pacific Ocean.
Arauco Province is one of three provinces of the Chilean region of Bío Bío. It spans a coastal area of 6,366 km2 (2,458 sq mi) just south of the mouth of the Biobío River, the traditional demarcation between the nation's major natural regions, Zona Central and Zona Sur. The province originally covered the once-independent indigenous territory of Araucanía, but this was afterward divided into four provinces. It is devoted largely to agricultural pursuits. The capital Lebu is situated on the coast about 90 km (56 mi) south of Concepción with which it is connected by rail.
Coronel is a Chilean city and commune, located in the Concepción Province of the eighth region of Biobío.
Lota is a city and commune located in the center of Chile on the Gulf of Arauco, in the southern Concepción Province of the Biobío Region, 39 kilometres south of Concepción, and is one of the ten cities (communes) that constitutes the Concepción metropolitan area. The city is mostly known for being the traditional centre of coal mining in Chile, albeit mining ended in the 1990s.
Invierno mine is a coal mine in Riesco Island, Chile, that was active from 2013 to 2020. The mine exported coal extracted from Loreto Formation to northern Chile and to other countries. The enterprise in charge of the project declared initially the works would occupy an area of 1500 ha representing 0.3% of the area of Riesco Island. Reportedly, it was initially projected to be the first of five coal mines in Riesco Island to be established by Von Appen and Angelini. The development of the mine included both the clearing of Magellanic subpolar forests and the reforestation of areas burned down during the Chilean settlement of Magallanes more than 100 years ago.
Lebu is a port city and commune in central Chile administered by the Municipality of Lebu. Lebu is also the capital of Arauco Province in Bío Bío Region. It lies on the south bank of the mouth of the Lebu River.
Agriculture in Chile encompasses a wide range of different activities due to its particular geography, climate, geology and human factors. Historically agriculture is one of the bases of Chile's economy, now agriculture and allied sectors—like forestry, logging and fishing—account only for 4.9% of the GDP as of 2007 and employed 13.6% of the country's labor force. Some major agricultural products of Chile include grapes, apples, onions, wheat, corn, oats, peaches, garlic, asparagus, beans, beef, poultry, wool, fish and timber. Due to its geographical isolation and strict customs policies, Chile is free from diseases such as Mad Cow, fruit fly and Phylloxera, this plus being located in the southern hemisphere and its wide range of agriculture conditions are considered Chile's main comparative advantages. However, the mountainous landscape of Chile limits the extent and intensity of agriculture so that arable land corresponds only to 2.62% of the total territory.
Marihueñu or Marigueno is a large hill in the Nahuelbuta Range near the coast in the Lota commune of the Bío Bío Region of southern Chile. Its name is from the Mapudungun mari, "ten" and huenu, "heights". This height was within the Moluche aillarehue of Marigueno that lay between the Pacific Ocean and the lower reaches of the Biobío River north of the aillarehues of Arauco and Catirai. It was an important location during the Arauco War because it overlooked the coastal route to Araucanía from Concepción. The place is located on the coast to the south of Lota between Lota and Laraquete. It is bounded to the north by the valley of Colcura and to the south by the valley of Chivilingo.
The White Earthquake was a climatic event consisting of intense winds, cold, snowfall and rain that occurred through southern Chile in August 1995. 7,176 people were left isolated as result of the heavy snowfall and three died. By August 16 an estimated 176,000 sheep were dead, and 800,000 were in "critical condition". Besides agriculture, the forestry sector was also paralysed. Along Chile Route 9 a number of cars and two buses with passengers were trapped in snow.
Between 1830 and 1850, Chilean silver mining grew at an unprecedented pace which transformed mining into one of the country's principal sources of wealth. The rush caused rapid demographic, infrastructural, and economic expansion in the semi-arid Norte Chico mountains where the silver deposits lay. A number of Chileans made large fortunes in the rush and made investments in other areas of the economy of Chile. By the 1850s, the rush was in decline and lucrative silver mining definitively ended in the 1870s. At the same time, mining activity in Chile reoriented to saltpetre operations.
Catamutún is a coal mine and locality in Los Ríos Region, Chile. Catamutún is located 25 km away from the city of La Unión. Coal has been mined in Los Ríos Region since the 1930s and Catamutún begun in 1945 to be exploited by Compañía Carbonífera San Pedro de Catamutún, an enterprise which has since then expanded into limestone mining.
Mateo Martinić Beroš is a Chilean historian, politician and lawyer of Croatian descent. He has primarily dealt with the history of the Magallanes Region. He entered the University of Chile in 1953 studying briefly pedagogy before moving on to study law and then continued his law studies in the Catholic University of Chile. He finally became a lawyer in 1983. From 1964 to 1970 he served as intendant of Magallanes Region. He received the National History Award in 2000.
During most of Chile's history, from 1500 to the present, mining has been an important economic activity. 16th century mining was oriented towards the exploitation of gold placer deposits using encomienda labour. After a period of decline in the 17th century mining resurged in the 18th and early 19th century this time revolving chiefly around silver. In the 1870s silver mining declined sharply. Chile took over the highly lucrative saltpetre mining districts of Peru and Bolivia in the War of the Pacific (1879–83). In the first half of the 20th century copper mining overshadowed the declining saltpetre mining.
Estratos de Pupunahue is the name given to the sedimentary strata of Oligocene-Miocene age that crop out in Pupunahue and Mulpún near Valdivia, Chile. Outside this locality Estratos de Pupunahue extends below the surface over a larger area. The thickness of the strata varies from a few meters to 530 meters. The strata were initially described by Henning Illies. The strata are made up of conglomerate, sandstone and mudstone. The clast of the conglomerates are made up of metamorphic rock and the disposition of the conglomerates varies from clast-supported to matrix-supported. The sandstone and mudstone contain layers of lignite coal that exceed 30 cm in thickness.
Cheuquemó Formation is a geological formation of sedimentary rock in south-central Chile. The sediments of the formation were deposited during the Late Oligocene and Early Miocene epochs. The formations lower sections are made up of conglomerate, then successions of sandstone, tuff and mudstone rich in organic material follows. The formation indicates that sedimentation occurred in an estuarine (paralic) and other non-marine (continental) environments. It contains fossils of the following genera: Mytilus, Cardium and Turritella. Stratigraphically it overlies the Bahía Mansa Metamorphic Complex and underlies the Miocene Santo Domingo Formation.
Mulpún is a coal mine and locality in Los Ríos Region, Chile. Mulpún lies in the commune of Máfil a few kilometers to the west of the Chile Route 5 and north of the Calle-Calle and San Pedro River.
Pupunahue is a coal mine and hamlet in Los Ríos Region near the towns of Máfil and Los Lagos. The coal beds exploited in Pupunahue belong to the Pupunahue Beds. Geologically the sedimentary rocks of the Pupunahue Beds containing coal lie in Pupunahue Basin, a sub-basin of the larger Pupunahue-Mulpún Neogene Carboniferous Basin. The coals of Pupunahue deposited during the Oligo-Miocene in an environment with moderate marine influence and certainly less marine influence than for the nearby Catamutún coals. In 2016 it was announced that the closed Pupunahue mine would become a national heritage site.
Loreto Formation is a sedimentary formation of Late Eocene age in the southernmost Magallanes Basin. It overlies the Leña Dura Formation and the contact with an overlying formation is not observed. From 2013 to 2020 its coals were mined in Invierno mine, Riesco Island.
