The name Chuquicamata is a word from the Aymara language and refers to the chuco or chuqui Native American Indian group. They worked the copper deposits here in pre-Hispanic times to make their weapons and tools.
The opencast was the biggest pit in the world during the nineties. But it has lost its foremost position and the new Escondida Copper Mine is today the world's largest producing mine with 750,000 metric tons of production which was 5.6% of the world's production in 2000.
In the ninties Chuquicamata produced annually 600,000 to 650,000 metric tons of copper, and in 2000 this was 4.9% of the world's production. The mine also produces around 13,500t of molybdenum every year.
The visit of the mine is a popular trip and part of most tour company schedules. But the mine is a working mine, and so the visits are more or less a kind of promotion visit of the mining company.