La Placilla de Cachinal de la sierra y la minería de la plata en el sector meridional del despoblado de Atacama. Taltal, 1880-1900

Abstract

The article discuses the process of mining expansion in the southern sector of the Atacama Desert by analyzing the discovery of silver in Cachinal de la Sierra, focusing on Arturo Prat's mining exploitations and its rapid initial expansion that began in 1880 until its decline in the last decade of the nineteenth century. This article also analyzes the impact of mining on attracting labor to Placilla de Cachinal de la Sierra, located 148 km inland from the port of Taltal (1858), where a formal settlement was raised with streets, public services, and a concentration of people which, in its time of greatest expansion, reached about 3,000 inhabitants. This paper seeks to explain the reasons for the settlement and the factors that influenced the decline and abandonment of this incipient town in Taltal.