According to the related literature [16], the peak of production was 3 Mt/year in 1910 and only 0.8 Mt/year in 2007. If the current molten salt TES is applied to the expected CSP market growth [17 ...

These haunting ghost towns are the relics of the nitrate towns that formed in northern Chile during the 19th century. Humberstone was founded in 1862 by James Thomas Humberstone as the nitrate mining center of "Oficina La Palma" …

Perhaps the highlight of our trip to Chile, other than just being in Chiloé, was visiting the abandoned ghost towns of the nitrate mining era. Just 30 minutes from Iquique are Humberstone and Santa Laura. Santa Laura The first photos are of Santa Laura.

Download this stock image: Processing plant in abandoned nitrate mining town of Santa Laura, near Iquique, Chile - B17R82 from Alamy's library of millions of …

History of Chacabuco Mining Town Image: Dieter Titz [CC BY-ND 2.0] Chacabuco Mining Town was first established in 1924 by the Lautaro Nitrate Company Ltd, to take advantage of the nitrate mining boom going on in Chile at the time. However, the mines there were short-lived. The American depression in the 1930s alongside the invention of synthetic nitrate by the Germans meant that by the …

Pisagua was once an important port in the nitrate mining industry and, like other towns of the 1st Region, belonged to Peru before the War of the Pacific in the 1880s. When it was connected to Iquique by the Nitrate Railways after that war, it became the northernmost point on Chile's railroad system.

Discover The Nitrate Towns of Chile in Tamarugal, Chile: Towns with a resource known as "white gold," valuable enough to fight a war over, now stand ghostly and empty.

Natural nitrate could not compete and the town slowly fell into decay. In 1960 Humberstone with its sister nitrate mining town, Santa Laura, were completely abandoned. Inside a hospital room in Humberstone. The peeling wall of the hospital in Humberstone. The abandoned nitrate mine in Humberstone. Abandoned machinery.

The Atacama Desert numbered 170 nitrate mining towns, yearly producing three million tons of saltpetre. However, after synthetic fertilizer had been invented, Chile's nitrate industry collapsed. All that remain are ghost towns, among which Humberstone and Santa Laura, near Iquique.

During most of Chile's history, from 1500 to the present, mining has been an important economic activity. 16th century mining was oriented towards the exploitation of gold placer deposits using encomienda labour. After a period of decline in the 17th century mining resurged in the 18th and early 19th century this time revolving chiefly around silver. ...

The four-year War of the Pacific, lasting from 1879 to 1883, pitted Chile against Peru and Bolivia. It was primarily a border skirmish, precipitated by the Bolivian government's takeover of a Chilean-operated nitrate mining operation. The move proved a disastrous policy for Bolivia. In losing the war, borders were shifted.

Humberstone, Chile, was founded in 1862 as the nitrate mining center of Oficina La Palma. In 1925, it was renamed Humberstone after the British mine manager who bolstered the small town's wealth . Both Humberstone and nearby Santa Laura boomed together from their shared nitrate …

Chacabuco, the ruins of an old nitrate mining town near Antofagasta Ghost town buildings at the coast of Atacama Desert, Chile Funny rock art in the high desert of Chile

A decline set in as a result of the disturbances of the wars of independence, achieved in 1823.The nineteenth century was a time of political turmoil during which silver (e.g., at Chanarcillo), copper, and nitrate mining, and the attractions of the Californian and Australian gold rushes, lured away many of Chile's gold miners.

The driest place on Earth, Chile's Atacama Desert is home to approximately 170 ghost towns that owed their existence to sodium nitrate mining. The mines and their associated communities declined rapidly after synthetic ammonia was developed in Germany in the 1910s, and most did not survive the post-WWII era.

In the northern reaches of Chile's Atacama Desert is an abandoned town that stands out for both its eeriness and unusual English name. Humberstone is an old mining town developed in the late 19th century. It takes its name from James Humberstone, a British engineer who moved to South America in the 1870s to make his fortune in the extraction ...

Humberstone and Santa Laura works contain over 200 former saltpeter works where workers from Chile, Peru and Bolivia lived in company towns and forged a distinctive communal pampinos culture. That culture is manifest in their rich language, creativity, and solidarity, and, above all, in their pioneering struggle for social justice, which had a ...

In Chile, mining is a crucial component of the overall economy and an age-old endeavor with a culture of its own. Although operations exist throughout the length of the country, mining reigns supreme in the Chilean north. The sophistication and relevance attained by Chilean mining are based on: Resource quality, reserve base, and deposit location.

From nitrate town to internment camp: the cultural biography of Chacabuco, northern Chile. Journal of Material Culture, 2011. Flora Vilches. Download PDF. Download Full PDF Package. This paper. A short summary of this paper. 37 Full PDFs related to this paper. Read Paper. Download PDF.

Santa Laura is a 'ghost town' in the Atacama desert some 50 kilometres from Iquique, Chile. A former nitrate mining and processing facility, Santa Laura was originally constructred in 1872 and has a rather dramatic history. The plant fell into Chilean hands in 1879 when Chile annexed large parts of Peru (and Bolivia) during the War of the ...

A Legacy of Mining Busts Haunts Chile's Lithium Dreams. Dozens of towns abandoned after a collapse in nitrate prices offer a cautionary tale for …

Sarah Rovang is the 2017 recipient of the H. Allen Brooks Travelling Fellowship.All photographs are by the author, except where otherwise specified. The original railroad that ran through the Atacama Desert, connecting the string of northern Chile's historic nitrate mines to its port cities, today very nearly matches Route 5, the Panamerican Highway.

The Nitrate Towns of Chile Towns with a resource known as "white gold," valuable enough to fight a war over, now stand ghostly and empty. A water tower on the west side of Humberstone, Chile (all ...

Humberstone: A Chilean ghost town with an english name. 5 min read. 2 years ago Nathan. Once a bustling mining and progressive town in the Atacama Desert, a few hundred kilometres from Chile's borders with Peru and Bolivia, Humberstone has now become a disturbingly silent ghost town with no workers or residents on its streets.

Ghost town: Established in 1862, Humberstone in northern Chile was the epicentre of saltpeter, or sodium nitrate, mining. But after the value of …

Humberstone is a former mining town in the Atacama Desert, a few hundred kilometres from Chile's borders with Peru and Bolivia. It was named after James Humberstone, a British chemical engineer ...

and visit the ghost town Humberstone and the old Nitrate factory Santa Laura and examine the nitrate mining history of northern Chile. • We will visit the abandoned nitrate town of Mapocho and collect field data on the living situation of the mine workers. • Dinner and overnight stay in Huara.

Now abandoned and existing only as a ghost town. La Noria was a saltpeter mining town set up in 1826. It was one of the first communities to be founded for this industry in what today is Northern Chile. The mining business flourished over the coming years, serving a large European market from the ports of nearby Iquique.

Established in 1862 in these remote pampas of northern Chile, Humberstone was once a buzzing center of saltpeter mining. Chile saltpeter, or sodium nitrate, was an ingredient in the manufacture of ...

The Mars-like setting near Baquedano in the Atacama Desert. (Image credit: Martin Reich) The nitrate belt is about 435 miles (700 kilometers) long and 12 miles (20 km) wide.

In 1925, it was renamed Humberstone after the British mine manager who bolstered the small town's wealth. Both Humberstone and nearby Santa Laura boomed together from their shared nitrate production. The towns saw their heydays as a combined nitrate mining and processing center in the 1930s and '40s [source: Nuestro].

Until 1909, Chile had something very special: large deposits of sodium nitrate. Also known as "white gold" or "Chile saltpeter," sodium nitrate is used in …

This was enough to propel the new land's popularity, and in 1544, the town of La Serena was founded close by to support the mining activities in Andacollo. By 1551, gold smelters had been established in La Serena and Santiago, and the quest for gold continued towards the southern regions of Chile.

Chacabuco is an abandoned Nitrate or "Saltpeter" town that was founded in 1924 by the Lautaro Nitrate Company and soon fell into ruin as the nitrate mining boom in Chile came to an abrupt end in the 1930's The Germans had invented synthetic nitrate and by the end of the 1930's most of Chile's nitrate industry came to and end.

The researchers speculate in the paper that the mutations might have been caused by prenatal nitrate exposure since Ata was found in La Noria, an abandoned nitrate mining town in …