The production of miningscapes in the open-pit era. The case of low-grade copper: Bingham Canyon, U.S.A., and Chuquicamata, Chile (1903-1923)
Résumé
During 1906 the Guggenheim Exploration Company (Guggenex) decided to finance the low-grade copper project that Daniel C. Jackling had started three years earlier at Bingham Canyon, U.S.A. With the crucial investment of the Guggenheim in Utah, the exploitation of copper enters into the open-pit mining era. 8300 kilometers southern and 9 years later the Guggenheim family applied all the industrial experience acquired in Bingham Canyon and other locations in the opening of the Chuquicamata mine, northern Chile. In both cases, even if the plans could be adapted to local conditions, all the crucial decisions about mining were made in Manhattan, New York, and the consequences of these were suffered by the local population. Following a geo-historical standpoint, and thought the analysis of different official documents, historical sources, and scientific discourses of the 19th and early 20th this paper explores how the socioeconomical and historical context influences the remote production of miningscapes and the consequences of this process. It is proposed that certain dominant economic groups sought to associate with scientific personalities and/or university laboratories with the aim of acquiring better benefits in mining production. In this sense, we argue that the production of the open-pit mining of copper is the entanglement of scientific discourses (geology) and materialities (capital and technology). In this context, the territorial changes caused by these projects reconfigured the meaning and material relations of the Bingham Canyon and Chuquicamata population with minerals. Finally, we propose that one of the consequences of the production of miningscape is the appearance of socioenvironmental conflicts.