Escondida

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Minera Escondida, which means 'hidden' in Spanish, is a mining company that operates two open pit copper mines in the Atacama Desert, 170 km southeast of Antofagasta in northern Chile. It is currently the highest producing copper mine in the world. 2007 production of 1.483 million tons of the metal was worth US$ 10.12 billion, mainly as metal in concentrate but some as cathode, and was 9.5% of world output and 26% of Chilean production, according to the US Geological Survey's preliminary estimates of 2007 world mine output. It is so called because the main orebody does not outcrop on surface but is 'hidden' by hundreds of metres of practically barren overburden. The lower open pit in the satellite image on the right is the main Escondida mine but the upper two are Barrick Gold's Zald var mine. The second Escondida open pit, Escondida Norte, had not been established when the image was taken but is now immediately to the right (east) of the larger Zald var pit.