Deep in a vast hole in the earth, huge trucks crawl about like insects on a mission: This is Chuquicamata, the world's biggest open pit mine, an oddball tourist draw in Chile's desert and the origin of tonne after tonne of China-bound copper.
Every afternoon, a bus belonging to Codelco, the world's biggest copper concern, drops about 50 visitors off at a viewing area with an eye-popping panoramic view of the pit mine, in the middle of the Atacama desert, about 1,000km north of Santiago.
"We get about 35,000 visits every year" plus schoolchildren and technicians, spokesman Patricio Huerta says.
PHOTO: AFP
Many are backpacking young people, particularly Europeans, who follow the route of fabled Argentine-Cuban "guerrillero" Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who back in 1952 spent time at "Chuqui" learning about the grim conditions in which miners were living.
Like all of Chile's biggest mining operations, copper mining at that time was in the hands of US investors, namely the Guggenheim brothers.
In 1971, then-president Salvador Allende nationialized the mines and Codelco workers are widely considered to be blessed with good pay and working conditions.
Over the past 90 years as industrial development spiralled worldwide, Chuquicamata grew.
Additional mines nearby were opened such as Radomiro Tomic and Mina Sur.
But they pale in all comparisons to the impressive "Chuqui," which stretches 4.3km long, 3km wide and and plunges 825m down into the earth.
Copper prices' upward march on world markets, and soaring Chinese demand, are plain to see at Chuquicamata, where the business of bringing out the ore roars on 24 hours a day.
Jorge Tenorio, 56, watches with an expert's knowing stare as huge red plates of copper -- fresh out of the foundry-refinery -- are marked with "CCC" (Compaqma Codelco Chile) and loaded up before being sent to port at Antofagasta and Mejillones for export.
"It has been a year or two that shipments have been really strong to Asia -- to China and South Korea. It used to be mainly to the United States and Europe. Now, there are Chinese missions, Chinese who come to see `Chuqui,'" says Tenorio, who is in charge of the copper refinery's shipping unit. "They take a lot of pictures, ask questions, and see our products."
"There are Chinese engineers who come to check on our prod-ucts. They are really interested," Tenorio said. "They are demanding, but our product is top-notch."
Codelco has stepped up development of the north section of the mine, on which Codelco now relies heavily, to try to push annual output from the three Atacama desert mines from 900,000 tonnes -- 65 percent of Codelco's output -- to more than a million tonnes a year.
And plans are under way to take Chuqui wider and deeper. For now, the copper is not close to running out.
Experts estimate that in 90 years of operation, only about one third of the copper in the area has been mined.
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