Mining in Chile aluminium-smelter projects in the Puerto Aisén and Strait of Magellan areas. Mining 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. Although the relative importance of copper declined in the 1970s and 1980s, it was still the Chilean economy's most important product in 1992. The mining sector represented 6.7 percent of GDP
War of the Pacific in the Andes. For the first five months the war played out in a naval campaign, as Chile struggled to establish a sea-based resupply corridor for its forces in the world’s driest desert. In February 1878, Bolivia imposed a new tax on a Chilean mining company (“Compañía de Salitres y Ferrocarril de Antofagasta”, CSFA) despite Bolivian express warranty in the 1874 Boundary Treaty that it would not increase taxes on Chilean persons or industries for 25 years. Chile protested and solicited to submit it to mediation, but Bolivia refused and considered it a subject of Bolivia’s courts. Chile insisted and