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Mines/Chile

Humberstone and Santa Laura saltpetre works

Humberstone and Santa Laura saltpetre works, Chile. Heritage site, open pit, mining nitrate (saltpetre).

Why Humberstone and Santa Laura saltpetre works is famous

Nitrate works in the Atacama listed as a World Heritage Site. Only the coordinates and the UNESCO id are verified from sources I opened; add history from a primary source. ICOMOS says the Peruvian Nitrate Company built Humberstone (first called La Palma) in 1862; it was among the biggest works in Tarapaca until 1889 with about 3,000 people, closed in the crisis and reopened in 1933 under COSACH with the Humberstone name. Santa Laura was built in 1872. Population reached 3,700 by 1940. COSATAN was wound up in 1959 and both works closed; they were auctioned for scrap in 1961.1,2,3

Story cards

Timeline

  1. 21 December 1907Santa Maria School massacre, Iquique4
  2. 1913Haber-Bosch process comes online5

Humberstone and Santa Laura saltpetre works today

Mining in Chile

Where next

Events

ExamplesSanta Maria School massacre, IquiqueThe nitrate works at Humberstone and Santa Laura are now a World Heritage Site.1Rival ofHaber-Bosch process comes onlineChile's nitrate monopoly pushed scientists to fix nitrogen from air. Humberstone worked to 1959.5

Places

Located inHumberstoneHumberstone and Santa Laura saltpetre works sits at Humberstone.1Located inIquiqueHumberstone and Santa Laura saltpetre works is about 37 km from Iquique.1

Sources

  1. Wikidata entity Q572895
  2. Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works, evaluation No 1178 UNESCO World Heritage Centre / ICOMOS advisory body evaluation
  3. Wikidata item Q572895 (Humberstone and Santa Laura) Wikidata (CC0)
  4. Masacre de la Escuela Santa Maria de Iquique Biblioteca Nacional de Chile (Memoria Chilena)
  5. Dirty Business Science History Institute

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Chuquicamata from the ISS by Alexander Gerst (ESA), CC BY-SA 2.0.