Catamutún facts for kids

Catamutún is a place in the Los Ríos Region of Chile where a very important coal mine used to operate. It's about 25 kilometers (about 15 miles) from the city of La Unión. People have been mining coal in the Los Ríos Region since the 1930s. The Catamutún mine itself started working in 1945. It was run by a company called Compañía Carbonífera San Pedro de Catamutún, which later also started mining limestone.

What is Coal?

Coal is a type of fossil fuel that forms from dead plants over millions of years. It's like a black rock that can be burned to create energy. This energy is used to make electricity, heat homes, and power factories. Coal mining is the process of digging this valuable resource out of the ground.

The Catamutún Mine Complex

The Catamutún mine was actually a group of three mines working together. These mines were called San Pedro, Antihual, and Bandurrias. They all dug into the same layer of coal deep underground. This coal layer was split into two parts by a thin layer of light gray clay. The coal layers didn't have many big cracks or breaks, which made it easier to mine.

Coal Quality

The coal found at Catamutún was a type called sub-bituminous coal. This means it's a good quality coal, but not the highest. It had low sulfur, which is good because sulfur can cause pollution when burned. It also produced a lot of heat when burned, making it a good source of energy.

History of Mining at Catamutún

People knew about coal in the Catamutún area a long time ago. As early as 1851, a scientist named Rodolfo Amando Philippi wrote about it. Later, in 1855, Vicente Pérez Rosales mentioned it in his book. Explorations to find coal were done by private individuals in 1873 and by the government in 1908.

Mining Techniques

When the Compañía Carbonífera San Pedro de Catamutún started mining in 1945, they used different methods. One method was called room and pillar, where miners dig out "rooms" of coal and leave "pillars" of coal to support the roof. Another method was longwall mining, which uses special machines to cut large sections of coal. Longwall mining helped them get more coal out of the ground.

Life in the Mining Community

In the beginning, the miners and their families lived in a special mining camp right near Catamutún. Life there had its challenges. To help the miners, social workers and the mining company worked together to create a plan for better housing.

Moving to La Unión

Because of this plan, in the late 1980s, many miners moved to a new neighborhood called Miraflores in the city of La Unión. La Unión had better services, like schools and shops, which made life easier for the families. So, La Unión became a "dormitory town" – a place where miners lived and slept, but traveled to Catamutún for work.

Miners' Background

Many of the miners came from farming families. Even after they started working in the mine, they often kept their connection to farming. For example, they would ask for time off to plant or harvest potatoes. In their free time, many miners preferred to work on their small farms rather than spending time with other miners.

The End of Mining

Mining at Catamutún stopped in the late 1990s. Until then, it had been the only coal mine in the Los Ríos and Los Lagos Regions that had operated continuously since the 1940s. After the Catamutún mine closed, some workers were moved by the company to another mine called Mulpún, where mining continued until 2001.

See also

In Spanish: Catamutún para niños