Chuquicamata (/tʃuːkiːkəˈmɑːtə/ choo-kee-kə-MAH-tə; referred to as Chuqui for short) is the largest open pit copper mine in terms of excavated volume in the world.

[citation needed] A third interpretation is that it means the distance (camata) that a spear (chuqui) was thrown by an Atacameño to determine the size of the copper orebody that a god intended to give him.

[citation needed] Incas and Spanish explorers exploited the mineral deposits of Chuquicamata during the pre-colonial and colonial periods, and Chilean and English companies mined the brochantite veins from 1879 to 1912.

The mummy was found in an ancient mine shaft, apparently trapped by a rockfall—[6] It is also related that Pedro de Valdivia obtained copper horseshoes from the natives when he passed through in the early 16th century.

[7] Mining activity was relatively small scale until the War of the Pacific, when Chile annexed parts of both Peru and Bolivia, including Chuquicamata.

At this time, a great influx of miners were drawn into the area by what was termed the 'Red Gold Fever' (La Fiebre del Oro Rojo).

[1] Many miners lived in makeshift and lawless shanty towns around the mines, including Punta de Rieles, Placilla, and Banco Drummond.

These early operations mined high grade veins like the Zaragoza and Balmaceda veins, which contained concentrations of up to 10-15% copper, leaving low grade disseminated ore.[9] 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 the attempt failed, leaving the company deeply in debt.

In 1951, a young Che Guevara documented visiting the mine with Alberto Granado in his memoir The Motorcycle Diaries, describing it as "[...] a scene from a modern drama.

The modern era started when an American engineer named Bradley[clarification needed] finally developed a method of processing low-grade oxidized copper ores.

[12] The Guggenheims also had discovered a process for treating the low grade ores developed by Elias Anton Cappelen Smith[13] and were immediately interested.

E. A. Cappelen Smith, consulting metallurgist for M. Guggenheim's Sons, worked out the first process for the treatment of Chuquicamata copper oxide ore around 1913 and led a team of engineers operating a pilot plant in Perth Amboy, New Jersey for a year.

[2][16] A port and an oil-fired power plant were built at Tocopilla, 140 km (90 mi) to the West and an aqueduct was constructed to bring water in from the Andes.

The Guggenheims sold the mine to Anaconda Copper in 1923,[18] and production increased to 135,890 tonnes by 1929 before the Great Depression hit and demand fell.

Nevertheless, it remained by far the mine with the largest total production (approximately 29 million tonnes) of copper until the end of 2007 (excluding Radomiro Tomić).

These mines gave rise to largely self-contained and self-sustaining settlements, complete with housing for workers, water and electrical plants, schools, stores, railways, and police forces.