gold mining in Chile

{{see also|History of mining in Chile}}

The earliest known gold mining in what is now Chile dates to c. 700 CE and is associated to the Diaguita and El Molle cultures.

Incas exploited placer gold in the northern half of Chile prior to the arrival of the Spanish.{{cite book |last1=Maksaev |first1=Víctor|last2=Townley |first2=Brian |last3=Palacios |first3=Carlos |last4=Camus |first4=Francisco |editor-last=Moreno |editor-first=Teresa |editor-last2=Gibbons |editor-first2=Wes |title=Geology of Chile |publisher=Geological Society of London |date=2006 |pages=179–180 |chapter=6. Metallic ore deposits |isbn=9781862392199}} It has been claimed that the Inca Empire expanded into Diaguita lands because of its mineral wealth. This hypothesis was as of 1988 under dispute. An expansion of this hypothesis is that the Incas would have invaded the relatively well-populated Eastern Diaguita valleys (present-day Argentina) to obtain labour to send to Chilean mining districts.{{Cite book

| last1 = Lorandi

| first1 =A.M.

|author-link=Ana María Lorandi

|editor-first1=Tom

|editor-last1=Dillehay

|editor-first2=Patricia

|editor-last2=Netherly

|chapter=Los diaguitas y el tawantinsuyu: Una hipótesis de conflicto

| title = La frontera del estado Inca

| pages = 197–214

| year = 1988

| language = es

}} Archaeologists Tom Dillehay and Américo Gordon claim Incan yanakuna extracted gold south of the Incan frontier in free Mapuche territory. Following this thought, the main motive for Incan expansion into Mapuche territory would have been to access gold mines.{{Cite book

| last1 = Dillehay

| first1 = T.

| last2 = Gordon

| first2 = A.

| author-link1 = Tom Dillehay

|editor-first1=Tom

|editor-last1=Dillehay

|editor-first2=Patricia

|editor-last2=Netherly

|chapter=La actividad prehispánica y su influencia en la Araucanía

| title = La frontera del estado Inca

| pages = 183–196

| year = 1988

| language = es

}}

File:Pedro_de_Valdivia.jpg the conquistador that bought much of Chile under Spanish rule and initiated mining on behalf of the Spanish. Pedro Mariño de Lobera records that a common story in Chile at the time of Valdivia's death was that Valdivia had been killed by Mapuches that forced him to drink molten gold.{{cite book |title=Crónica del Reino de Chile |last=Mariño de Lobera |first=Pedro |author-link=Pedro Mariño de Lobera |language=es |chapter=XLIII |year=1960 |quote=...hicieron con él muchas fiestas por burla y escarnio, y por remate trajeron una olla de oro ardiendo y se la presentaron, diciéndole: pues tan amigo eres de oro, hártate agora dél, y para que lo tengas más guardado, abre la boca y bebe aqueste que viene fundido, y diciendo esto lo hicieron como lo dijeron, dándoselo a beber por fuerza, teniendo por fin de su muerte lo que tuvo por fin de su entrada en Chile |url=http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/13582842323460728544424/index.htm}}]]

Early Spaniards extracted gold from placer deposits using indigenous labour. This contributed to cause the Arauco War, as native Mapuches lacked a tradition of forced labour like the Andean mita and largely refused to serve the Spanish.{{cite book |last=Bengoa |first=José |title=Historia de los antiguos mapuches del sur |year=2003 |publisher=Catalonia |location=Santiago |isbn=956-8303-02-2 |language=es|pages=252–253}} The key area of the Arauco War were the valleys around Cordillera de Nahuelbuta where the Spanish designs for this region was to exploit the placer deposits of gold using unfree Mapuche labour from the nearby and densely populated valleys.{{cite book |last=Zavala C. |first=José Manuel |date=2014|editor-last=Dillehay|editor-first=Tom |title=The Teleoscopic Polity|chapter=The Spanish-Araucanian World of the Purén and Lumaco Valley in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries |publisher=Springer |pages=55–73 |isbn=978-3-319-03128-6 |editor-link=Tom Dillehay }} Deaths related to mining contributed to a population decline among native Mapuches. Another site of Spanish mining was the city of Villarrica. Here the Spanish mined gold placers and silver.Petit-Breuilh 2004, pp. 48–49. The original site of the city was likely close to modern Pucón. However at some point in the 16th century it is presumed the gold placers were buried by lahars flowing down from nearby Villarrica volcano. This prompted settlers to relocate the city further west at its modern location.

While of less importance than gold districts in the south, the Spanish also carried out mining operations in Central Chile. There the whole economy was oriented towards mining. As indigenous populations in Central Chile declined to about 30% of their 1540s numbers towards the end of the 16th century and gold deposits became depleted, the Spanish of Central Chile begun to focus on livestock operations.{{Cite journal|title=Migraciones locales y asentamiento indígena en las estancias españolas de Chile central, 1580-1650|journal=Historia|volume=49|issue=1|doi=10.4067/S0717-71942016000100004|url=https://scielo.conicyt.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0717-71942016000100004&script=sci_arttext#nb29|year=2016|language=es|doi-access=free|last1=Contreras Cruces |first1=Hugo |pages=87–110 }}

Mining activity declined in the late 16th century as the richest placer deposits, which are usually the most shallow, became exhausted. The decline was aggravated by the collapse of the Spanish cities in the south following the battle of Curalaba (1598) which meant for the Spaniards the loss of both the main gold districts and the largest indigenous labour sources.{{sfn|Salazar|Pinto|2002|p=15}} Gold mining became a taboo among Mapuches in colonial times, and gold mining often prohibited under the death penalty.{{Cite journal |title=Indagaciones en torno al significado del oro en la cultura mapuche. Una exploración de fuentes y algo más |journal=Estudios Atacameños |url=https://scielo.conicyt.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0718-10432021000100309&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en |last1=Payàs Puigarnau |first1=Getrudis |date=2021-12-15 |volume=67 |last2=Villena Araya |first2=Belén |doi=10.22199/issn.0718-1043-2021-0028 |s2cid=244279716 |language=Spanish |trans-title=Inquiries on the Meaning of Gold in Mapuche Culture. A review of sources and something more|url-access=subscription }} Compared to the 16th and 18th centuries, Chilean mining activity in the 17th century was very limited.Villalobos et al. 1974, p. 168. Gold production totaled as little as 350 kg over the whole century. Chile exported minor amounts of copper to the rest of the Viceroyalty of Peru in the 17th century.{{cite book |last1=Villalobos |first1=Sergio |last2=Retamal Ávila |first2=Julio|last3=Serrano |first3=Sol |date=2000 |author-link=Sergio Villalobos |title=Historia del pueblo Chileno |volume=4 |page=154 |language=es }} But Chile saw an unprecedented revival of its mining activity in the 18th century, with annual gold production rising from 400 to 1000 kg over the course of the century.Villalobos et al. 1974, pp. 226–227. Gold, silver and copper from Chilean mining begun to be exported directly to Spain via the Straits of Magellan and Buenos Aires in the 18th century.{{sfn|Salazar|Pinto|2002|p=16–17}}

In 1879 an expedition led by Chilean Navy officer Ramón Serrano Montaner discovered gold in some watercourses of western Tierra del Fuego.{{harvnb|Martinic Beros|1973|pp=55–65}}{{Cite journal |last=Bascopé Julio |first=Joaquín |date=November 2010 |title=Sentidos coloniales I. El oro y la vida salvaje en Tierra del Fuego, 1880-1914 |journal=Magallania |language=en |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=5–26 |doi=10.4067/S0718-22442010000200001 |issn=0718-2244|url=https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/506/50619401017.pdf }} In 1880–1881 enterprises and mining camps at the gold fields discovered by Montaner's expedition were established. The Tierra del Fuego gold rush was triggered in 1884 when the French steamship Arctique ran aground on the northern coast of Cape Virgenes, in Argentina near the border with Chile.{{Cite journal |last=Martinic Beros |first=Mateo |author-link=Mateo Martinic |year=2003 |title=La minería aurífera en la región austral americana (1869-1950) |journal=Historia |language=Spanish |volume=36 |doi=10.4067/S0717-71942003003600009 |doi-broken-date=12 July 2025}} The gold rush reached the Chilean islands south of Beagle Channel so that by 1893 over one thousand men, most of them Dalmatians, lived there. However, by 1894 gold extraction begun to decline in these islands and deposits became gradually depleted.{{harvnb|Martinic Beros|1973|pp=65–75}} A number of enterprises formed in the 1900s to extract gold from the islands south of Beagle Channel ended with meager results.

At the turn of the century back-and-forth implementation and removal of the gold standard in Chile caused concurrent periods of upswing and decline of gold mining in Chile.{{sfn|Millán|2006|pp=13–14}}

The devastating consequences of the Great Depression in Chile in the labour market led to a revival of gold ming in Cordón Baquedano by Chilote and Croatian pirquineros in the 1930s.{{Cite journal |title=Etnografía histórica de la migración croata y chilota en la fiebre del oro en Porvenir, Tierra del Fuego, Chile 1930-1990 |journal=Estudios Atacameños |last=Saldívar |first=Juan M. |volume=66 |trans-title=Historical Ethnography of the croatian and chilotes migration in the gold rush of Porvenir, Tierra del Fuego, Chile 1930-1990 |language=es |doi=10.22199/issn.0718-1043-2020-0054|year=2020|issue=66 |pages=347–366 |doi-access=free }}

The locality of Andacollo, near the port of Coquimbo, was subject to gold rush in the early 1930s when there was a large inflow of gold miners exploiting local placer deposits.{{sfn|Millán|2006|pp=13–14}} While gold mining declined in the late 1930s, around 1935 Andacollo produced as much as 43% of all placer gold of Chile causing a shortage of water needed for processing.{{sfn|Millán|2006|pp=13–14}}

{{see also|Decreto Ley 600}}

A government initiative to stimulate gold mining known as Plan Aurífero Nacional was in place from 1983 to 1986. In the 1980s gold mining surged in Chile with the opening of the mines of El Indio and Guanaco.{{Cite report |title=A 30 años del Plan Aurífero Nacional, una revisión a la minería de oro en Chile |date=2017-05-01 |url=https://bibliotecadigital.ciren.cl/server/api/core/bitstreams/726dd465-e2ee-479d-940b-52bc06f6f1c1/content |last1=Villela Olavarría |first1=Daniela |doi= |volume=DE 08/2017 |last2=Cantallopts Araya |first2=Jorge |publisher=COCHILCO |language=es}} Gold production in Chile peaked in 2000. The closure of El Indio mine in 2002 was for long considered the last major mine closure in Chile until copper mine Cerro Colorado was put on hold in 2023.{{Cite news |title=Mina Cerro Colorado de BHP cierra este 2023 mientras sigue buscando solución al problema acuífero |last=Cobo |first=Stephanie |date=2023-02-09 |url=https://www.reporteminero.cl/noticia/noticias/2023/02/cerro-colorado-bhp-cierra-2023-buscando-solucion-problema-acuifero |access-date=2025-05-19 |work=Reporte Minero & Energético |language=es}}

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite book |title=La minería metálica en Chile en el siglo XX|trans-title=Metal Mining in Chile in the Twentieth Century|language=Spanish |last=Millán |first=Augusto |publisher=Editorial Universitaria |year=2006 |isbn=956-11-1849-1 |location=Santiago de Chile|page=}}
• Salazar, Gabriel; Pinto, Julio (2002). Historia contemporánea de Chile III. La economía: mercados empresarios y trabajadores. LOM Ediciones. {{ISBN|956-282-172-2}}.
• Villalobos, Sergio; Silva, Osvaldo; Silva, Fernando; Estelle, Patricio (1974). Historia De Chile (14th ed.). Editorial Universitaria. {{ISBN|956-11-1163-2}}.

Category:Gold mining in Chile