Fundición Hernán Videla Lira better known as Fundicón Paipote, and formerly known as Fundición Nacional Paipote, is a copper smelter plant 8 km southeast of

Copiapó Copiapó () is a List of cities in Chile, city and communes of Chile, commune in northern Chile, located about 65 kilometers east of the coastal List of towns in Chile, town of Caldera, Chile, Caldera. Founded on December 8, 1744, it is the capi ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

's Atacama Region. It operates with a Teniente Converter smelting technology and produces copper anodes made of 99.6% of copper. The smelter is owned by ENAMI and has been paralyzed since February 2024 for a major overhaul. At the time of paralization the smelter generated economic losses for ENAMI. It is classified as a "custom smelter" as it does not depend on

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically including metals, concentrated above background levels, and that is economically viable to mine and process. The grade of ore refers to the concentration ...

concentrate from a particular mine nor does it lie next to one. It was established in 1952 with the stated aim of smelting ores of small and medium-scale mining in the Atacama Region. Besides copper it also processes

ore concentrate Ore concentrate, dressed ore or simply concentrate is the product generally produced by metal ore mines. The raw ore is usually ground finely in various comminution operations and gangue (waste) is removed, thus concentrating the metal component. ...

s of

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

and

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

. In 2015 it had a capacity to produce 84,000

metric tons The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the sh ...

of copper yearly making it the smallest of Chile's seven copper smelters. The smelter has been criticized for exceeding on certain occasions by far (almost 500%) the

sulfur dioxide Sulfur dioxide (IUPAC-recommended spelling) or sulphur dioxide (traditional Commonwealth English) is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless gas with a pungent smell that is responsible for the odor of burnt matches. It is r ...

emission cap set by environmental regulations in 2019 which is 350 μg/m³ SO₂ per hour. In addition there were accusations in 2021 of doctoring of smelting process data. It is named after Hernán Videla Lira (1903–1982), a mining businessman and politician .

References

{{coord missing, Chile Buildings and structures in Atacama Region Paipote Infrastructure completed in 1952 Chimneys in Chile ENAMI

See also

References