Mina Pirquitas is a town and municipality in

Jujuy Province Jujuy is a province of Argentina, located in the extreme northwest of the country, at the borders with Chile and Bolivia. The only neighboring Argentine province is Salta to the east and south. Geography There are three main areas in Jujuy: * ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

in the Rinconada Department, in Coyaguaima district, 355 km from the capital of Jujuy, accessed from the town of Abra Pampa by provincial routes 7 and RP 70 (138 km).

Geography

With residences at above sea level, it is the highest Argentinian year-round settlement. The localities of Olaroz Chico, at , and Chico Pairique at meters, (both located in the Province of Jujuy), are at higher elevations, but were considered by the National Census 1991 as dispersed rural communities with little or no year-round residences at those altitudes. The population of the settlement at the mine ranges up to 673 inhabitants, though during initial construction, the region housed about 2000 inhabitants. There are two centers: one administrative (offices, laboratories, hospital, house and chapel) and another to the west about 7 miles where "The streak" and where most of the mines are located.http://www.silverstandard.com/_resources/pirquitas_technical_report.PDF p. 187

Importance

It lies in one of the most important mining areas. The vein contains mostly

cassiterite Cassiterite is a tin oxide mineral, SnO2. It is generally opaque, but it is translucent in thin crystals. Its luster and multiple crystal faces produce a desirable gem. Cassiterite was the chief tin ore throughout ancient history and remains t ...

, a mineral that contains among other elements

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

, and

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

. There are traces of other elements such as

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

iridium Iridium is a chemical element with the symbol Ir and atomic number 77. A very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group, it is considered the second-densest naturally occurring metal (after osmium) with a density of ...

palladium Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself na ...

and

tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolat ...

. Also reported small amounts of radioactive minerals and rare in some parts of the mine.

References

Populated places in Jujuy Province {{Jujuy-geo-stub