| Location | |
|---|---|
  El Algarrobo | |
| Atacama Region | |
| Country | Chile |
| Coordinates | 28°48′30.7″S70°59′6″W / 28.808528°S 70.98500°W |
| Production | |
| Products | Iron |
El Algarrobo is an iron mine in north-central Chile. Geologically it is an iron oxide-apatite (IOA) type of deposit. [1] El Algarrobo is part of a wider province of iron ores known as the Chilean Iron Belt. [2] From the 1970s onward El Romeral have come to overshadow El Algarrobo in iron ore production. [3]
The Antofagasta Region is one of Chile's sixteen first-order administrative divisions. The second-largest region of Chile in area, it comprises three provinces, Antofagasta, El Loa and Tocopilla. It is bordered to the north by Tarapacá, by Atacama to the south, and to the east by Bolivia and Argentina. The region's capital is the port city of Antofagasta; another one of its important cities is Calama. The region's main economic activity is copper mining in its giant inland porphyry copper systems.
The Atacama Region is one of Chile's 16 first order administrative divisions. It comprises three provinces: Chañaral, Copiapó and Huasco. It is bordered to the north by Antofagasta, to the south by Coquimbo, to east with Provinces of Catamarca, La Rioja and San Juan of Argentina, and to the west by the Pacific Ocean. The regional capital Copiapó is located at 806 km (501 mi) north of the country's capital of Santiago. The region occupies the southern portion of the Atacama Desert, the rest of the desert is mainly distributed among the other regions of Norte Grande.
Calama is a city and commune in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. It is the capital of El Loa Province, part of the Antofagasta Region. Calama is one of the driest cities in the world with average annual precipitation of just 5 mm (0.20 in). The River Loa, Chile's longest, flows through the city. Calama has a population of 147,886.
Copiapó is a city and commune in northern Chile, located about 65 kilometers east of the coastal town of Caldera. Founded on December 8, 1744, it is the capital of Copiapó Province and Atacama Region.
Antofagasta Province is one of three provinces in the northern Chilean region of Antofagasta (II). The capital is the port city of Antofagasta. Located within the Atacama Desert, it borders the El Loa and Tocopilla provinces to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the West and the Atacama Region to the south.
Chañaral is a small coastal city and commune in the Atacama Region, Chile and capital of the Chañaral Province. Despite it being coastal, it is not a seaside resort, partly because the ocean is contaminated by the copper mining industry. Situated a short distance to the north is the Pan de Azúcar National Park.
El Cerro Mutún (Spanish for "the Mountain Mutún") is an iron ore deposit. Located in the Germán Busch Province in the Santa Cruz Department of Bolivia, near Puerto Suárez, it extends across the border into Brazil, where it is called the Serrania de Jacadigo. Also known as the "Serrania Mutún", it has an area of about 75 square kilometers. Its estimated reserves are about 40.205 billion (40.205 × 109) tons of iron ore of 50% iron, mainly in hematite and magnetite form, and in lesser quantities in siderite and manganese minerals. This can be compared with an estimate of the total world reserves of iron ore: 800 billion tons of crude ore containing more than 230 billion tons of iron.
The Chilean Coastal Range is a mountain range that runs from north to south along the Pacific coast of South America parallel to the Andean Mountains, extending from Morro de Arica in the north to Taitao Peninsula, where it ends at the Chile Triple Junction, in the south. The range has a strong influence on the climate of Chile since it produces a rain shadow to the east. Because of this the vegetation growing on the seaward slopes is much more exuberant than in the interior. Compared to the coastal lowlands and the Intermediate Depression, it is sparsely populated with land use varying from protected areas to grazing and silviculture. The range is present in all Chilean regions, except for Coquimbo Region and Magallanes Region.
The Atacama Desert is a desert plateau located on the Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile. Stretching over a 1,600 km (990 mi) strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, it covers an area of 105,000 km2 (41,000 sq mi), which increases to 128,000 km2 (49,000 sq mi) if the barren lower slopes of the Andes are included.
The mining sector in Chile is one of the pillars of Chilean economy and copper exports alone stands for more than one third of government income. Most mining in Chile is concentrated to the Norte Grande region spanning most of the Atacama Desert. Mining products of Chile includes copper, gold, silver, molybdenum, iron and coal. Chile was, in 2019, the world's largest producer of copper, iodine and rhenium, the second largest producer of lithium and molybdenum, the sixth largest producer of silver, the seventh largest producer of salt, the eighth largest producer of potash, the thirteenth producer of sulfur and the thirteenth producer of iron ore in the world. In the production of gold, between 2006 and 2017, the country produced annual quantities ranging from 35.9 tons in 2017 to 51.3 tons in 2013.
The geology of Bolivia comprises a variety of different lithologies as well as tectonic and sedimentary environments. On a synoptic scale, geological units coincide with topographical units. The country is divided into a mountainous western area affected by the subduction processes in the Pacific and an eastern lowlands of stable platforms and shields. The Bolivian Andes is divided into three main ranges; these are from west to east: the Cordillera Occidental that makes up the border to Chile and host several active volcanoes and geothermal areas, Cordillera Central once extensively mined for silver and tin and the relatively low Cordillera Oriental that rather than being a range by its own is the eastern continuation of the Central Cordillera as a fold and thrust belt. Between the Occidental and Central Cordillera the approximately 3,750-meter-high Altiplano high plateau extends. This basin hosts several freshwater lakes, including Lake Titicaca as well as salt-covered dry lakes that bring testimony of past climate changes and lake cycles. The eastern lowlands and sub-Andean zone in Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca, and Tarija Departments was once an old Paleozoic sedimentary basin that hosts valuable hydrocarbon reserves. Further east close to the border with Brazil lies the Guaporé Shield, made up of stable Precambrian crystalline rock.
The Atacama Fault Zone (AFZ) is an extensive system of faults cutting across the Chilean Coastal Cordillera in Northern Chile between the Andean Mountain range and the Pacific Ocean. The fault system is North-South striking and runs for more than 1100 km North and up to 50 km in width through the Andean forearc region. The zone is a direct result of the ongoing subduction of the Eastward moving Nazca Plate beneath the South American Plate and is believed to have formed in the Early Jurassic during the beginnings of the Andean orogeny. The zone can be split into 3 regions: the North, Central and South.
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.
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.
El Laco is a volcanic complex in the Antofagasta Region of Chile. It is directly south of the Cordón de Puntas Negras volcanic chain. Part of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes, it is a group of seven stratovolcanoes and a caldera. It is about two million years old. The main summit of the volcano is a lava dome called Pico Laco, which is variously reported to be 5,325 metres (17,470 ft) or 5,472 metres (17,953 ft) high. The edifice has been affected by glaciation, and some reports indicate that it is still fumarolically active.
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 Taltal. The belt follows much of the Atacama Fault System and is about 600 km long and 25 km broad.
El Tofo is an iron ore mine in the Chilean Norte Chico region. The mine lies in northern Coquimbo Region within a larger mining district known as the Chilean Iron Belt. Geologically El Tofo is an iron oxide-apatite deposit.
El Romeral is an iron mine in north-central Chile. The mine benefits from being located only 22 km NNE of the city of La Serena and being next to Guayacán, a port with conditions for high-tonnage cargo ships. The mine emerged as a replacement for the nearby mine of El Tofo that was close to depletion in the early 1950s. El Romeral was Bethehem Chile Iron Mines last major investment as Compañía de Acero del Pacífico obtained the ownership of El Tofo and El Romeral in the early 1971 when they were nationalized during the Presidency of Salvador Allende. Despite being initially an expensive mine in terms of infrastructure investment and having a troublesome geology El Romeral proved with time to host more iron than initially thought. Following an ownership restructuring Compañía Minera del Pacífico, now holds control of the mine. During the 1970s El Romeral would produce enough iron to fully supply the steel mill of Huachipato. From the 1970s onward El Romeral came to overshadow El Algarrobo mine in iron production.
Punta del Cobre Formation is a geologic formation of Early Cretaceous age cropping out in the interior of Atacama Region, Chile. The formation is of Early Cretaceous age. It is made of massive volcanic rocks, chiefly andesite, dacite, and volcaniclastic rocks representing "flows" and Volcanic breccia of basaltic andesitic and basaltic composition. The rocks of the formation belong to the calc-alkaline magma series. Rocks show intense hydrothermal alteration and hosts significant copper and gold deposits and lesser amounts of zinc and silver. The formation lies in a zone of small-scale mining that supplies the nearby Fundición de Paipote copper smelter. The copper and iron ores of the Dominga prospect are in part emplaced in Punta del Cobre Formation.
 | This Atacama Region location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |