Besides the Incas and Spanish explorers, Chilean and English companies mined the brochantite veins from 1879 to 1912.
The opencast was the biggest pit in the world during the 1990s.
But it has lost its foremost position and the newer Escondida mine is now the world's largest producing mine with 750,000 metric tons of production which was 5.6% of the world's production in 2000.
Copper has been mined for centuries at Chuquicamata as was shown by the discovery in 1899 of "Copper Man", a mummy dated at about 550 A.D. which was found trapped in an ancient mine shaft by a fall of rock.
It is also said that Pedro de Valdivia obtained copper horseshoes from the natives when he passed through in the early 16th Century.

Mining activity was relatively small scale until the War of the Pacific when Chile annexed large areas of both Peru and Bolivia north of its old border, which included Chuquicamata.
There was then a great influx of miners into the area drawn in by 'Red Gold Fever' (La Fiebre del Oro Rojo) and soon Chuquicamata was covered with mines and mining claims, over 400 at one point.
It was a wild and disorganised camp.
Title to claims was often in doubt due to the defective 1873 Mining Code, and the capture of Calama by the 1891 Chilean Civil War rebels who confiscated mines belonging to loyalists further complicated titles.
Many of the miners lived in makeshift and lawless shanty towns around the mines, including Punta de Rieles, Placilla and Banco Drummond, which provided alcohol, gambling and prostitution and where murder was almost a daily occurrence.
As late as 1918 the army had to be sent in to keep order.
The towns were eventually buried under the waste dumps to the east of the mine.

These early operations mined veins such as the Zaragoza and Balmaceda, which were high grade with values up to 10-15% copper, and disregarded the low grade disseminated ore.
One attempt was made to process the low grade ore in 1899-1900 by Norman Walker, a partner in La Compañia de Cobres de Antofagasta, but it failed leaving the company deeply in debt.
However, mining never really developed satisfactorily in the early days because of the lack of water, the isolation and lack of communications, lack of capital and fluctuations in the copper price.
Nevertheless larger mining companies eventually emerged, organised as commercial rather than mining operations to avoid the imperfections of the mining code, and started to buy up and consolidate the small mines and claims.
Besides the Incas and Spanish explorers, Chilean and English companies mined the brochantite veins from 1879 to 1912. The opencast was the biggest pit in the world during the 1990s. But it has lost its foremost position and the newer Escondida mine is now the world's largest producing mine with 750,000 metric tons of production which was 5.6% of the world's production in 2000. Copper has been mined for centuries at Chuquicamata as was shown by the discovery in 1899 of "Copper Man", a mummy dated at about 550 A.D. which was found trapped in an ancient mine shaft by a fall of rock. It is also said that Pedro de Valdivia obtained copper horseshoes from the natives when he passed through in the early 16th Century.
Mining activity was relatively small scale until the War of the Pacific when Chile annexed large areas of both Peru and Bolivia north of its old border, which included Chuquicamata. There was then a great influx of miners into the area drawn in by 'Red Gold Fever' (La Fiebre del Oro Rojo) and soon Chuquicamata was covered with mines and mining claims, over 400 at one point. It was a wild and disorganised camp. Title to claims was often in doubt due to the defective 1873 Mining Code, and the capture of Calama by the 1891 Chilean Civil War rebels who confiscated mines belonging to loyalists further complicated titles. Many of the miners lived in makeshift and lawless shanty towns around the mines, including Punta de Rieles, Placilla and Banco Drummond, which provided alcohol, gambling and prostitution and where murder was almost a daily occurrence. As late as 1918 the army had to be sent in to keep order. The towns were eventually buried under the waste dumps to the east of the mine.
These early operations mined veins such as the Zaragoza and Balmaceda, which were high grade with values up to 10-15% copper, and disregarded the low grade disseminated ore. One attempt was made to process the low grade ore in 1899-1900 by Norman Walker, a partner in La Compañia de Cobres de Antofagasta, but it failed leaving the company deeply in debt. However, mining never really developed satisfactorily in the early days because of the lack of water, the isolation and lack of communications, lack of capital and fluctuations in the copper price. Nevertheless larger mining companies eventually emerged, organised as commercial rather than mining operations to avoid the imperfections of the mining code, and started to buy up and consolidate the small mines and claims.
Chuquicamata