Huge tires, huge mine supply world's copper

CALAMA, Chile – What is big, worth 30-40 million dollars, used in the northern part of Chile, and has to be replaced every single year? Answer: the biggest brand of Michelin tires that they produce.

They are used on the trucks that drive through the Chuquicamata copper mine every day. It is easily their biggest expense every year. In fact, the 300-ton trucks themselves only cost $4 million.

The Chuquicamata copper mine is one of the largest copper resources in the world. It is 4,700 meters long, 3,000 meters wide, and 1,000 meters deep, and it operates 24-7.

Women are an integral component of the mine’s workforce. In fact, some of the trucks are only allowed to be driven by women because “there is a belief, whether it is true or not,” as put by our female guide, “that women are more careful drivers.”

In the past, women had not been allowed to work in the open mine because of worker jealousy concerns. The thought was that they would cause problems and accidents in the mine.

Dust flying in the air, it’s a wonder that the drivers can find their way around the curvy roads in the mine. The dustiest times are when there are explosions that break apart the rock which is later brought to the reduction area, where it is mixed with water and broken down to pieces about 0.3-millimeters wide.

It then goes through several processes, including concentrator, smelting and refinery.
The concentrator process separates the metals from the rock; smelting rids the substance of water impurities; and refinery purifies the substance even more. This is brought to port Mejillones and shipped all over the world.

Water plays a great role in the workings of the Chuquicamata mine. First of all, being located in the middle of the desert, rain rarely comes. However, when it does, the result can be quite disastrous. For this reason, the workers have a good communication system for catastrophes like this. Also, channeling the necessary water for the copper process as well as for the workers is very expensive.

In fact, the entire town had to move because it was more economical than trying to build a bunch of water channels to the new are they were mining in.  Parts of the now ghost town can still be seen to the side of the mine.  

A new mine is getting ready to start working within the next few years called Mina Alice. In another 50 years, it is estimated that the copper from this area will run out though.

It is unclear what will happen from there. It is a concern not only for the town of Calama but also for Chile’s economy, where 1/3 of its exports come from copper today.