Copper Industry

Early Andean copper mining was prompted by the need to develop symbolic objects that served political power, the display of social status, and communication of religious belief. Gold-plated and alloyed copper objects were common in the pre-Inca Chavín culture of about 1000 bce. Electrochemical replacement and depletion silvering and gilding on copper surfaces were devised in pre-Columbian times to give a precious-metal appearance. The first known Andean example of copper-silver alloy is a Peruvian bead from the Lurin valley site of Malposo. Tumbaga, a gold-copper alloy, was first produced in the central Andes, but later became common to many parts of pre-Columbian South America and as far north as Mexico. In 1494, Columbus reportedly initiated gold mining with a copper by-product in the Dominican Republic. The Spanish conquista-dores valued copper for use in armaments.

The first European copper mine in Latin America opened in 1522 at Taxco, Mexico. Mexico produced a total of 8,000 tons of copper by 1890, averaged about 65,000 tons annually by 1905, and more than 200,000 tons per year by the early 1970s. The most important Mexican deposits are located at Cananea and Nacozari (La Caridad) in Sonora and, formerly, at El Boleo in Baja California.

The nineteenth century was a time of political turmoil in Chile, and copper mining became increasingly important. The War of the Pacific, involving Chile, Bolivia, and Peru (1879–1883) resulted in the incorporation of the copper-rich Regions I and II into northern Chile. Copper mining expanded in Chile following the introduction of the first reverberatory furnace in 1842, which permitted smelting of copper sulfide minerals. Chile was the foremost world producer until 1882, when the United States took the lead. A new era for Chilean copper evolved in the early 1900s through U.S. investment and mining technology. Using the U.S.-developed froth flotation for concentration of copper ores and large-scale open-pit mining methods, low-grade Chilean copper porphyries could be exploited.

The Chilean Cordillera possesses several major copper porphyry deposits at Chuquicamata, El Salvador, Potrerillos, Rio Blanco, El Teniente, and La Escondida and La Candelaria. Chile's largest, the Chuquicamata Mine (600,000 tons per year), began large-scale production in 1912. La Escondida Mine (300,000 tons per year) started production in late 1990. The mostly U.S.-owned large Chilean copper mines were nationalized on July 16, 1971. The government-owned copper company, Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile (CODELCO-Chile), is the largest copper mining and refining company in the world. In the early twenty-first century, Chile is the world's largest copper producer, having regained that position in 1982, when it surpassed the United States. Chile's annual copper production was more than 1.6 million tons of copper. In 2004 Chile's copper production increased to more than 4 million tons per year.

Peruvian production is about 400,000 tons of copper per year, but Peru's copper industry did not grow significantly until after the War of the Pacific, aided by the completion of the central railway, and between 1940 and 1960, by the significant exploration and mining development efforts of U.S.-owned companies. Though significant reserves are known in the Carajas District of Brazil, mines of the Rio Grande do Sul area have been the most important and currently produce about 46,000 tons of copper per year. Copper also has been mined in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela, but although some countries have undeveloped resources, the amount mined has been small. Between 1800 and 1926, the copper mines in the Bolivian province of Pacajes near the Chilean border had an annual production of about 20,000 tons of copper per year. Argentina, Bolivia, Honduras, and Ecuador currently produce less than 600 tons per year of copper each. Cuba has produced copper from the Pinar del Río Province near Matahambre since the end of the nineteenth century. Copper has been mined near Caracas, Venezuela, and from deposits near the port of Cabello in the state of Yaracuy since the early sixteenth century. Copper mining in Haiti began in 1728, and with development of the Meme copper deposit in the late 1950s, continued through 1971.

In 2004 the countries of Latin America contributed 44 percent of the world copper mine production. Chile produced approximately 35 percent of world copper production, Peru 6 percent, and Mexico 3 percent, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. These countries also had a substantial percentage of the world copper ore reserve base. Chile had approximately 38 percent, Peru 6 percent, and Mexico 4 percent. Like many other commodities, prices have gone up considerably for copper because of the industrialization of China and overall growth in the world economy. Chile in particular has benefited from this high demand.

See alsoMining: Colonial Spanish America; Mining: Modern.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Benavides, Alberto Q. "Exploration and Mining Ventures in Peru." Economic Geology 7 (November 1990): 1296-1302.

Brundenius, Claes. Technological Change and the Environmental Imperative: Challenges to the Copper Industry. Cheltenham, U.K.; Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2003.

Finn, Janet L. Tracing the Veins: Of Copper, Culture, and Community from Butte to Chuquicamata. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

Klubock, Thomas Miller. Contested Communities: Class, Gender, and Politics in Chile's El Teniente Copper Mine, 1904–1951. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998.

Lechtman, Heather. "Pre-Columbian Surface Metallurgy." Scientific American 250, no. 6 (June 1984): 56-63.

Méndez Beltrán, Luz María. La exportación minera en Chile, 1800–1840: Un estudio de historia económica y social en la transición de la Colonia a la República. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Universitaria, 2004.

Parsons, A. B. The Porphyry Coppers. New York: AIME, 1933. See pp. 320-354

Reyna, Jenaro González. Riqueza minera y yacimientos minerales de México. Mexico D. F., 1947. See pp. 173-183.

U.S. Bureau of Mines. "Copper." In Minerals Yearbook, vol. I, 1900–1989 issues.

                                Janice L. W. Jolly