Mining in Chile

1947 map of mines in Chile

The mining sector in Chile is one of the pillars of Chilean economy and copper exports alone stands for more than one third of government income. Most mining in Chile is concentrated to the Norte Grande region spanning most of the Atacama Desert. Mining products of Chile includes copper, gold, silver, molybdenum, iron and coal. Chile was, in 2019, the world's largest producer of copper,[1] iodine[2] and rhenium,[3] the second largest producer of lithium[4] and molybdenum,[5] the sixth largest producer of silver,[6] the seventh largest producer of salt,[7] the eighth largest producer of potash,[8] the thirteenth producer of sulfur[9] and the thirteenth producer of iron ore[10] in the world. In the production of gold, between 2006 and 2017, the country produced annual quantities ranging from 35.9 tons in 2017 to 51.3 tons in 2013.[11]