Pirquinero

A charactistic of the pirquinero is that they are involved in a wide range of stages of the production including mineral prospecting, extraction and processing.

[7] More specifically pirquineros in Chile concentrate in the communes of Diego de Almagro, Andacollo, Vallenar, Copiapó, Tocopilla, Chañaral and Taltal.

[12][13] Small, high-grade, unexploited deposits such as narrow veins in abandoned mines are one of the main targets of pirquineros and scavanging waste rock dumps through pallaqueo in these sites is usually a secondary activity.

[9] Pallaqueo is the hand selection of ore fragments for processing which allows to increase the over-all grade of the processed ore.[14] A type of estimation of ore grade in use by pirquineros is called puruñar or cachear and consists of putting finely crushed rock in a bull's horn split in half and diluting it in water.

[19][20] From 1974 onwards the output of pirquineros have been drastically overshadowed by those of large mining companies formed by foreign investment that entered the country following the Decreto Ley 600.

Monumento al pirquinero in Tierra Amarilla , Atacama Region .