Video Description
Toquepala Mine in Tacna, Peru. The blasting is at 1:25 of the clip.
Toquepala Discovery and Exploration
Copper mining in southwestern was carried on sporadically since the end of
the 19th century, and there are brief references in geographical literature
of the time to copper occurrences in the general area of Toquepala and
Cuajone. Narrow oxide and enriched sulfide veinlets were exploited on a very
limited scale, but the desert nature and difficult accessibility of the area
discouraged continued mining activities. Soon after the settlement of the
border conflict between Peru and Chile in 1929, interest was renewed in the
are and local residents started staking out mining claims. Prominent among
these were Juan Oviedo Villegas (Toquepala) and Julio E. Gianella (Cuajone).
Source: Daniel Rodriguez Hoyle in Surface mining by Bruce A. Kennedy,
editor.
Toquepala is a porphyry copper deposit in the southern sierra, inland from
the port of llo. It is worked as an open pit. Its existence was known for
quite some years; a famous traveler of the nineteenth century, Raimondi,
mentioned it.
Rock Blasting
Rock blasting is the controlled use of explosives to excavate or remove rock. It is a technique used most often in mining and civil engineering such as dam construction.
The use of explosives in mining goes back to the year 1627, when gunpowder was first used in place of mechanical tools in the Hungarian (now Slovakian) town of Banská Štiavnica. The innovation spread quickly throughout Europe and the Americas.
Source:
Wikipedia, Rock blasting.
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