Mining and minerals have always played a prominent role in civilizations, starting from prehistoric times when rocks and metals were used for weapons and tools. Later, during the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian empires, a wide variety of minerals and precious stones were extracted for the construction of palaces, temples, and sculptures, pigments for art, and as a fundamental base for the weapons used in these empires’ conquest campaigns. At the height of these great empires, and well into the Middle Ages, the minerals and metals extracted, mainly through animal or human labor, were also used for minting coins. In a move towards industrialization, using water power, temperature changes, or simply gunpowder, more minerals were extracted, especially those that were pure or of high concentration.
In the Americas, it is known that mining activity predates the discovery of the continent by far. However, with this event, the search for the same minerals that were already becoming scarce in Europe, which supported the kingdoms, combined with the constant exploration of this new territory, expanded the horizon. New minerals were discovered, along with professionals dedicated to their study. According to various documents, it was during one of these expeditions in the second half of the 18th century, in what is now the north of Chile, in the Atacama region, where two crates of “green sands” were collected. Thanks to research conducted by German mineralogist Friedrich Blumenbach, the first Chilean mineral, Atacamite, was identified and published in 1797.
According to the International Mineralogical Association (IMA), founded in 1958, and following the discovery of Atacamite, Chile’s mineralogical history now spans over 200 years. Nearly 150 minerals discovered in our country are recognized as Type Locality (TL). From north to south, these minerals were mostly discovered in ancient mining districts, such as Santa Rosa de Huantajaya, Challacollo, Chuquicamata, Quetena, Alcaparrosa, Sierra Gorda district, El Guanaco, Tierra Amarilla, Chañarcillo, and El Indio-Tambo. Additionally, by cross-referencing the information contained in the IMA with other sources (mindat.org) and publications (Dana’s New Mineralogy 1997), it can be concluded that Chile is home to over 700 minerals, out of the nearly 6,000 discovered worldwide.
Mining in Chile has gone through various stages, and today, our country stands out globally for the production of copper, iodine, rhenium, lithium, molybdenum, silver, salt, potash, and many others on a smaller scale. It is certain that, with technological advances, minerals currently awaiting extraction will be mined, new mineral species will be recognized, and they will become part of our century-old heritage.
15. Atacamite*), chlorinated copper sand. (Fr. Green sand from Atacama, oxygenated copper muriate).
Like emerald green sand, with very small and irregular grains; translucent, glassy, it produces a beautiful blue and green flame in embers. Content (according to Fourcroy and Berhollet) = 52 Copper, 10 Hydrochloric acid, 12 water, 11 oxygen, 11 quartz sand, which could not be separated, 1 carbonic acid gas and iron, 3 loss. The discovery site is located in the west of South America, in a small river in the Atacama sand desert, between Peru and Chile.
VI.
*) I have given this copper mineral, as beautiful as it is rare and remarkable (which Mr. Dombey brought back from his great South American journey twelve years ago, but which, to my knowledge, has not yet been described by any of our German mineralogists in their manuals), for lack of another name, this one, from its distant and, so far, only locality. I have described it precisely according to its nature, just as I have it in my collection. Under great scrutiny, some of the emerald-green grains appear columnar, with poor crystallinity and a flaky longitudinal fracture.
(Tra. M Hohf, 2023)
