El Tofo is an

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

mine in the

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an Norte Chico region. The mine lies in northern

Coquimbo Region The Coquimbo Region ( es, Región de Coquimbo, ) is one of Chile's 16 regions (first order administrative divisions). It is bordered by Atacama to the north, Valparaíso to the south, Argentina to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

within a larger mining district known as the

Chilean Iron Belt The Chilean Iron Belt is a geological province rich in iron ore deposits in northern Chile. It extends as a north-south beld along the western part of the Chilean regions of Coquimbo and Atacama, chiefly between the cities of La Serena and Talta ...

. Geologically El Tofo is an

iron oxide-apatite Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in front ...

deposit. The first record of the iron ores of El Tofo dates to a 1840 study of

Ignacy Domeyko Ignacy Domeyko or Domejko, pseudonym: ''Żegota'' ( es, Ignacio Domeyko, ; 31 July 1802 – 23 January 1889) was a Polish geologist, mineralogist, educator, and founder of the University of Santiago, in Chile. Domeyko spent most of his life, and ...

. While the mine presents good geological aspects for 19th century mining geographical aspects made access difficult despite being close to the Pacific coast. The mine began to be exploited in 1870 but by 1955 mining diminished as the deposit were close to depletion. Subsequently the

El Romeral mine El Romeral is an iron mine in north-central Chile. The mine benefits from being located only 22 km NNE of the city of La Serena and being next to Guayacán, a port with conditions for high-tonnage cargo ships.Millán 1999, p. 153 The mine emerg ...

was opened 30 km to the south in replacement.

Compañía de Acero del Pacífico The Compañía de Acero del Pacífico, also known by its acronym CAP, is the main iron and steel industry of Chile with its main facilities at Huachipato, Chile, Huachipato near the port of Talcahuano in Bío Bío Region. As result of Presidency o ...

obtained the ownership of El Tofo and El Romeral in the early 1970s when it was

nationalized Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

during the

Presidency of Salvador Allende Salvador Allende was the president of Chile from 1970 until his 1973 suicide, and head of the Popular Unity government; he was a Socialist and Marxist elected to the national presidency of a liberal democracy in Latin America.Don MabryAllende ...

. Later the ownership passed to Compañía Minera del Pacífico as it was privatized during the

Pinochet dictatorship Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...

. As of 2017 El Tofo is not active.

References

Iron ore mines in Chile Mines in Coquimbo Region Former mines in Chile {{Coquimbo-geo-stub