Brochantite

specimen number:
9862011

location:
Vieja Mine, Potrerillos, Chanaral, Atacama, Chile

description:
Deep green crystals of brochantite across the top of matrix. Slight damage present, still very nice for the species and locality.

The Vieja Mine (Mina Vieja), located in the Potrerillos district of Chanaral Province in the Atacama Region of Chile, is a prominent historic site within the country's major copper-producing belt. Geologically, the area sits within a rugged region of Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous marine and volcanic host rocks intruded by Late Eocene magmatic systems, creating extensive porphyry copper mineralization and a prominent supergene oxidation zone rich in secondary copper minerals. Historically, large-scale industrial extraction began in 1926 under the Andes Copper Mining Company (a subsidiary of Anaconda), operating actively until its closure in 1959 when operations shifted to the nearby El Salvador mine. Following corporate abandonment, the site became famously occupied from 1959 until 1978 by hundreds of artisanal miners, known as pirquineros, who worked the remaining mineralized zones and formed an autonomous community on the margins of the industrial mining landscape.

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