History of mining in Chile - Part 1

The exploitation of mineral resources has been an important activity in the history of Chile, and it will, continue being so in the near future. Base metals had already been recovered by natives before the arrival of Spanish conquerors. Later, during the Colonial period (1545-1810), gold, silver, and copper were exploited in several towns founded by the Spanish. The ore was crushed by local mills such as marays and trapiches, while mercury was used for the recovery of gold and silver. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, foreign engineers from Europe began arriving in Chile to teach new mining techniques and introduce new technologies to improve mining exploitation and the recovery of metals, mainly copper, silver, and industrial minerals such as saltpeter and lithium salts. Also, local metallurgists carried out important improvements in mining. In the nineteenth century, silver and gold production decreased due to the exhaustion of the mines. Thus, copper became the main metal exploited. Chile is now a major producer of molybdenum, a by-product of the copper industry.