Chuquicamata, Chile
From series “Giant Artificial Quarries of the Planet”
Chuquicamata, the largest open pit copper mine, is located in Chile.The Chuquicamata mine has been developed in the Andes at an altitude of 2849 meters above sea level. The unique mine is owned and operated by the Chilean national copper corporation, which has been remaining the leading copper producer for many years. Its scale is simply amazing. The diameter of the Chuquicamata’s crater is 4300 meters in its widest spot and around 3000 meters in the narrowest one. The pit is 850 meters deep. Its development began almost one hundred years ago, in 1915.
Officially, in 1952 more than four million tons of copper was recovered from the quarry, but since 1974 the level of resource extraction has increased to 420 tons per year. According to modern-day scientists, the first to discover rich copper deposits in the Andes were the Incas. Copper mining was carried out here as far back as in the 16 century With the development of industrial equipment people managed to discover and appreciate the wealth of the century-old copper mine. Next - Big Pit
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Chuquicamata - interactive map
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