Potrerillos, Chile facts for kids
Potrerillos is a ghost town located in the Atacama Region of Chile. A ghost town is a place where people used to live and work, but now it's mostly empty. Potrerillos started as a mining camp in the 1920s. It was built by a company called Andes Copper Mining Company.
There is also an airport nearby, called the Potrerillos Airport.
Contents
Potrerillos Copper Mine
Potrerillos was once home to a very important copper mine. This mine was a type called a copper porphyry mine, which means the copper is spread out in a large rock formation. It was discovered and developed by William Burford Braden. The mine was active for many years, from 1927 until 1959.
How Copper Formed Here
The area around Potrerillos has very old rocks, from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. These rocks were formed from sediment in the ocean and from volcanoes. Later, during the Eocene period, hot liquid rock called magma pushed its way into these older rocks. This magma brought with it valuable minerals like copper and molybdenum.
Over time, the top layers of the copper deposits changed due to weather and water. This created a special zone where new copper minerals formed, like malachite (which is green) and azurite (which is blue).
Potrerillos Community Library
In 1956, the people living in Potrerillos, many of whom were from the United States, wanted to start a library. They asked the Andes Copper Company for help, and the company agreed!
A group of women from the town quickly formed a committee. They started asking everyone in Potrerillos to donate books. The project grew fast! The company even gave them an empty house to use as a trial library.
The library received over 1,000 donated books. A person who used to be a librarian helped organize everything. They used the Dewey Decimal System to sort the books, which helps people find what they're looking for. They also made special cards and pockets for all the books.
At that time, families in Potrerillos didn't have TVs, and radio signals were often bad. So, the community was very excited about the library. It started by charging a small fee, about 1 or 2 cents, to rent books for a day. This money helped the committee buy even more new books.
Volunteers ran the library, opening it for one hour, three nights a week. Later, they had to move the library because there weren't enough houses. The Andes Copper Company realized how important the library was for the community. So, they decided to build a permanent library building inside the local school, which was used by the children of the workers. The new library got new shelves, desks, and bright lights. The company directors even started a special fund to buy more new books, including many from the U.S.
See also
- El Salvador mine
- Chuquicamata
- El Teniente
- Los Pelambres mine
- Chanarcillo
- Escondida
Images for kids
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In Spanish: Potrerillos (Chile) for children
