Chilean silver rush

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Chilean Silver Rush
Drawing of early 19th-century Chilean silver miners
Date1830–1850
LocationNorte Chico Mountains, Chile
CauseMajor discoveries of silver in Chañarcillo in 1832 and Tres Puntas in 1848
ParticipantsChilean miners
OutcomeInflux of silver miners led to the rapid demographic, infrastructural, and economic expansion of mining and non-mining industries in the Norte Chico mountain region of Chile
and the cities of northern Chile as of 1830. Modern boundaries of Chile are shown.

Between 1830 and 1850,

saltpetre
operations.

Exports of Chilean silver alongside copper and wheat were instrumental in helping Chile to prevent default on its independence debt in London.[1]

Background

independence in the 19th century did mining once again get prominence among economic activities in Chile.[2] Following the discovery of silver at Agua Amarga (1811) and Arqueros (1825), the Norte Chico mountains north of La Serena were intensely prospected.[3][4][5]

Growth cycle

Statue of Juan Godoy with costumery miner clothes in Copiapó.[6] This statue was ordered in 1850 to be made in Birmingham.[6] Contrary to popular belief the face is not based on that of a Scottish man but on an Argentine arriero held by contemporaries to have had factions similar to Godoy.[6]

On May 16, 1832,

El Manto de Los Peralta.[9] On May 26, Gallo bought all the rights from the Godoy brothers for a small fortune which however came to dwindle in relation to the future earnings from mining.[9][11]

The finding attracted thousands of people to the place and generated significant wealth.

plaza, school, market, hospital, theater, a railroad station, a church, and graveyard.[14]

Following the discovery of Chañarcillo, many other ores were found near Copiapó well into the 1840s,

school of mines was established in Copiapó.[17]

The mining zone slowly grew northwards into the diffuse border with Bolivia.[5] Agriculture in Norte Chico and Central Chile also expanded as a consequence of the rush as it created a new market for its product.[18][19]

The mines of Chañarcillo were:[20]

  • La Descubridora
  • Manto de Valdés
  • Bolaco
  • Colorada
  • Las Guías
  • El Reventón Colorado
  • Mantos de Bolados
  • Mina Yungay
  • Mantos de Ossa
  • Mantos de Peralta
  • Constancia
  • Candelaria
  • Delirio
  • Merceditas
  • San Francisco
  • Dolores 1
  • Dolores 2

When it rains everybody gets wet, but in Atacama they get wet in silver

In the 19th century,

Claudio Gay and Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna were among the first to raise the question of the deforestation of Norte Chico caused by the firewood demands of the mining activity. Despite the reality of the degradation caused by mining, and contrary to popular belief, the Norte Chico forests were not pristine before the onset of mining in the 18th century.[22]

Aftermath

By 1855, Copiapó was already in decline.[3] At the end of the silver rush, rich miners had diversified their assets into banking, agriculture, trade and commerce all over Chile.[3] An example of this is silver mining magnate Matías Cousiño who initiated coal mining operations in Lota in 1852 rapidly transforming the town, from being a sparsely populated frontier zone in the mid-19th century, into a large industrial hub.[23][24][25]

In 1870, 1570 miners worked in the Chañarcillo mines; however, the mines were exhausted by 1874, and mining largely ended in 1888 after the mines were accidentally flooded.[14][26][27] Despite this, Chañarcillo was the most productive mining district in 19th century Chile.[5]

A last major discovery of silver occurred 1870[A] in Caracoles in Bolivian territory adjacent to Chile.[5] Apart from being discovered by Chileans, the ore was also extracted with Chilean capital and miners.[4][5]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ According to Oreste Plath "some old miners believe that" Caracoles was discovered much earlier, presumably in 1811, by two Aragonese men who were escaping persecution during the independende era. Subsequently, the location of the outcrop is said to have been forgotten.[28]

References

  1. .
  2. ^ a b "Historia de la Minería Chilena". Icarito (in Spanish). University of Chile. 18 April 2011. Archived from the original on 13 June 2013.
  3. ^
    Santiago de Chile: Editorial Universitaria
    . pp. 469–472.
  4. ^ from the original on 31 December 2013.
  5. ^ .
  6. ^ a b c Cortés 2017, p. 14.
  7. ^ .
  8. ^ "Juan Godoy y Chañarcillo". mch.cl (in Spanish). 2008-11-17. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
  9. ^ a b c d e Cortés 2017, p. 7.
  10. ^ a b "Juan Godoy". cmn.cl (in Spanish). Consejo de Monumentos Nacionales de Chile. Retrieved 2022-05-26.
  11. ^ Cortés 2017, p. 8.
  12. ^ a b Cortés 2017, p. 9.
  13. ^ a b Cortés 2017, p. 10.
  14. ^ a b c d e f Baros M., María Celia (November 2008). "Juan Godoy y Chañarcillo". Minería Chilena. No. 329. Archived from the original on 23 May 2013.
  15. ^ Cortés 2017, p. 17.
  16. ^ Cortés 2017, p. 16.
  17. ^ Cortés 2017, p. 19.
  18. ^ Collier, Simon; Sater, William F. (2004) [1996]. "The conservative settlement, 1830–1841". A History of Chile, 1808–2002 (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 61.
  19. .
  20. ^ Cortés 2017, p. 15.
  21. ^ Aguilar, C.; Navea, L.; Valderrama, L. (2006). Análisis microestructural de clavos y estacas del mineral de Chañarcillo, ubicado en la región de Atacama (Report) (in Spanish). Al respecto Vicuña Mackenna señalaba: Cuando llueve todos se mojan, pero en Atacama se mojan de plata.
  22. ^ Camus Gayan, Pablo (2004). "Los bosques y la minería del Norte Chico, S. XIX. Un mito en la representación del paísaje chileno" (PDF). Historia (in Spanish). 37 (II): 289–310. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  23. ^ Mazzei, Leonardo (2000). "Expansión de gestiones empresariales desde la minería del norte a la del carbón, Chile, siglo XIX" (PDF). Historias (in Spanish). 46: 91–102.
  24. Universidad de Concepción
    . pp. 189–203.
  25. ^ Vivallos Espinoza, Carlos; Brito Peña, Alejandra (2010). "Inmigración y sectores populares en las minas de carbón de Lota y Coronel (Chile 1850–1900)" [Immigration and popular sectors in the coal mines of Lota and Coronel (Chile 1850–1900)]. Atenea (in Spanish). 501: 73–94.
  26. ^ Valenzuela Jara, A.E. "History of mining in Chile (part 2)". www.cim.org.[dead link]
  27. ^ Cortés 2017, p. 23.
  28. ^ Plath, Oreste (1979). Folklore chileno (in Spanish). Santiago, Chile: Editorial Nascimiento. pp. 131–133.
Bibliography