Qualla: El Salvador Mine https://qualla.com/el-salvador-mine en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:07 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: El Salvador Mine https://qualla.com/el-salvador-mine El Salvador Mine: Introduction https://qualla.com/el-salvador-mine/ The name was not always El Salvador. When the Anaconda Company began developing a new copper deposit in Chile's Atacama Desert in the late 1950s, the project was practical, not poetic: their existing Potrerillos mine was running out of high-grade ore, and production needed to continue. But when the new mine came online in 1959, delivering enough copper to push Chile's total output to roughly 450,000 tons per year, the relief was so palpable that the company renamed it El Salvador — The Savior. It was a name born of corporate gratitude. Within twelve years, the mine would belong to the Chilean state.

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]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/7/q/d/el-salvador-mine-wp/67qd-el-salvador-mine-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full El Salvador Mine: From Montana to Nationalization https://qualla.com/el-salvador-mine/ The Anaconda Company, headquartered in Montana, had built its fortune on copper extraction across the Americas. El Salvador was its answer to a declining asset, a replacement mine designed to maintain output as Potrerillos wound down. But the political ground in Chile was shiftin...

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]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/7/q/d/el-salvador-mine-wp/67qd-el-salvador-mine-from-montana-to-nationalization.mp3 0:06 2 full El Salvador Mine: The Smallest and the Costliest https://qualla.com/el-salvador-mine/ El Salvador occupies an unenviable position within Codelco's portfolio: it is the company's smallest mine and its most expensive to operate. In 2005, producing a pound of copper at El Salvador cost $0.72, compared to the company-wide average of $0.44. Declining ore grades — the g...

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]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/7/q/d/el-salvador-mine-wp/67qd-el-salvador-mine-the-smallest-and-the-costliest.mp3 0:06 3 full El Salvador Mine: Workers Who Blocked the Roads https://qualla.com/el-salvador-mine/ The history of El Salvador is punctuated by labor disputes that reflect Chile's broader political struggles. In 1983, during Pinochet's military rule, roughly 13,000 workers across three Codelco mines voted to strike indefinitely after a union leader was arrested for calling for ...

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]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/7/q/d/el-salvador-mine-wp/67qd-el-salvador-mine-workers-who-blocked-the-roads.mp3 0:06 4 full El Salvador Mine: Sabotage and Survival https://qualla.com/el-salvador-mine/ The 2008 strike escalated beyond picket lines. Striking workers damaged underground infrastructure, and loads left on support columns not designed to bear weight for extended periods created unstable conditions that an external consulting firm confirmed as dangerous. Electrical a...

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]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/7/q/d/el-salvador-mine-wp/67qd-el-salvador-mine-sabotage-and-survival.mp3 0:06 5 full