(JIn response to Tony Brewis' most interesting posting about a very interesting (B
(Jsubject, herewith a few comments related to history of Chilean saltpetre.(B

(JFirst, I have two pertinent references on the subject:(B
(J1. The Recovery of Nitrate from Chilean Caliche, by A. W. Allen. Charles (B
(JGriffin & Co., London, 1921. 50 pp. (B
(J2. Historia del Salitre, desde sus origenes hasta la Guerra del Pacifico (B
(J[from its origins until the War of the Pacific], by Oscar Bermudez. Universidad de (B
(JChile, 1963. 456 pp., many maps and illustrations.(B

(JThis is a most interesting topic, involving the still unsettled (in Bolivia's (B
(Jview) War of the Pacific between Chile, Bolivia, and Peru in the 1870s; the (B
(Jexport of nitrates to the world at large until World War I when the British (B
(Jnavy prevented Germany from being supplied from Chile; the resulting development (B
(Jin Germany of the Haber Process for nitrogen fixation, for which Haber was (B
(Jawarded the Nobel Prize; etc. (B

(JI have long wished that there would be a Mining History Congress meeting in (B
(JChile which would visit the nitrate fields in the Atacama desert, among other (B
(Jplaces of interest in the area, and I believe Ron Crozier had something of that (B
(Jin mind at one time. (B

(JNoel Kirshenbaum, California(B


(JIn a message dated 3/22/08 5:43:55 AM, [log in to unmask] writes:(B

(J> Question: Would there be much interest in, or demand for, an (B
(J> English-language book on the history of the production of Chile Saltpetre (sodium nitrate) (B
(J> from the mining of the natural raw material caliche during the nineteenth (B
(J> century?(B
(J> (B
(J> Let me give some background to this inquiry, and please forgive me if this (B
(J> takes some time, the situation is complicated!(B
(J> (B
(J> (B
(J> Potted history of nitrate mining(B
(J> (B
(J> Caliche (see footnote) was an important commodity for much of the nineteenth (B
(J> century. As described at various times in some articles which appeared over (B
(J> the years in Mining Magazine:(B
(J> (B
(J> "The nitrate ore, 'caliche', is found in the Chilean Atacama desert, in a (B
(J> discontinuous strip on the eastern slopes of the Pacific coastal range between (B
(J> the latitudes of 19$(D"k(J and 26$(D"k(J south."(B
(J> (B
(J> "The mining industry in Chile has a long history ..flourishing particularly (B
(J> in the years following Independence, gained in 1818.. An important sector for (B
(J> many years was the nitrate industry. Chilean nitrate was first exported to (B
(J> Europe in 1830, since when the industry has produced a total of over 140 (B
(J> million tonnes of sodium and potassium nitrates, the peak annual output having (B
(J> been in 1928 when 75 mines (called 'oficinas') employed 45,000 men and produced (B
(J> 3.2 million tonnes of nitrates."(B
(J> (B
(J> "A French company started iodine production in Chile in 1868, from nitrate (B
(J> ores, immediately exporting all its output to Europe. Soon, Chile dominated (B
(J> the world market, and it has been estimated that this country supplied about (B
(J> 65% of the world's iodine between 1880 and 1950."(B
(J> (B
(J> The book and its author(B
(J> (B
(J> The book describing the Chilean nitrate mining industry I am referring to, (B
(J> as explained below, exists only in draft form and is in the Spanish language. (B
(J> The author was the late Dr. Ronald Crozier. Ron was born of Scottish parents (B
(J> in 1930 in Antofagasta: his father was manager of some of the nitrate mines. (B
(J> Ron grew up in Chile, going, when he was old enough, to boarding school in (B
(J> the capital, Santiago. He then went on to Glasgow University to study (B
(J> chemistry and from there to Ann Arbor University, Michigan, to do a PhD in chemical (B
(J> engineering. After a period on the university staff, Ron joined Dow Chemicals (B
(J> in 1958, rising to be business development manager for Dow International, (B
(J> based in London and Zurich. He left Dow in 1969, returning to Chile to take up (B
(J> the post of chief executive of Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA, in (B
(J> charge of four nitrate mines, a railway and two ports, with a total of 13,000 (B
(J> employees. He left this post some time after President Allende nationalised the (B
(J> mines in Chile.(B
(J> (B
(J> Ron returned to the USA and from 1972 to 1976 was president of the Minerec (B
(J> Corporation, flotation reagent manufacturers. Returning to Chile once more in (B
(J> 1977, he was managing director of Tecnologia Minera Ltda based near Santiago, (B
(J> again producing flotation reagents, for a time supplying the El Teniente (B
(J> copper mine. Later he established and became president of Croslo Chemical, a (B
(J> Santiago-based firm which was a sales agency for chemicals and mining machinery. (B
(J> In parallel with this he became established as a consulting engineer, (B
(J> carrying out business development planning, project evaluation, design and (B
(J> evaluation of mineral and chemical processes, his clients including international (B
(J> corporations and the United Nations.(B
(J> (B
(J> His publications included two books, "Flotation: Theory, Reagents and Ore (B
(J> Testing" (Pergamon Press, 1992) and "Guns, Gunpowder and Saltpetre: A Brief (B
(J> History" (Faversham Society, 1998). In addition he presented papers and wrote (B
(J> nearly 90 articles, some in Spanish, some in English. He was a long-time (B
(J> contributor to Mining Journal Ltd's publications.(B
(J> (B
(J> In the early 1980s Ron was elected a fellow of the world-wide but (B
(J> London-based Institution of Mining and Metallurgy and for seven years served on its (B
(J> Council as the overseas representative for Latin America, assiduously timing his (B
(J> business visits to London to be able to attend IMM Council meetings at least (B
(J> once a year..(B
(J> (B
(J> In the late 1990s Ron's consulting career was cut short by the onset of (B
(J> illness which left him confined to a wheelchair, but he embarked on a plan to (B
(J> write a book on the history of the nitrate mining in Chile. This was intended to (B
(J> be used by university students in that country so was written in Spanish. (B
(J> His writing came to an abrupt end when, sadly, he died while sitting at his (B
(J> computer in August 2001.(B
(J> (B
(J> It took his widow Sabine some time to assemble all his books, files and (B
(J> historical records, but eventually in July 2004 she transferred a considerable (B
(J> amount of material to the Universidad Catolica de Chile in Santiago. A special (B
(J> "donations room" in the university library now houses his collection, (B
(J> containing about 150 books, mostly on mining history, some 200 years old; some 48 (B
(J> historical maps dealing with Chilean/Peruvian/Bolivian mining, including some (B
(J> original maps over 100 years old; many old photographs of former nitrate (B
(J> plants from his father's collection (his father having worked in the Chilean (B
(J> nitrate industry for some 50 years); sundry historical documents relating to both (B
(J> technical and political aspects of nitrate mining; and Ron's unfinished book, (B
(J> in hard copy and on CD. Sabine's hope in donating all this was that the (B
(J> university would be able to get maybe some post-graduate students to study the (B
(J> raw material and complete the book - Ron's unfinished draft, amounting to (B
(J> around 260 pages, covers only the nineteenth century.(B
(J> (B
(J> On her Christmas card to me in December 2007, however, Sabine wrote "The (B
(J> finishing of the nitrate book has not been successful. Although I gave them all (B
(J> his notes to finish the 20th century, they claim it will take a graduate (B
(J> student two to three years to do it, and money and volunteers are in short (B
(J> supply. I am thinking of funding it myself, or asking them to publish the 260 pages (B
(J> he finished. Conundrum!"(B
(J> (B
(J> On a more hopeful note, she tells me in a recent e-mail that a student at (B
(J> the Universidad de Los Andes, interested in the nitrate industry, who has (B
(J> already consulted some of Ron's documents for an undergraduate project, and might (B
(J> want to do a post-graduate study on the topic.(B
(J> (B
(J> My involvement(B
(J> (B
(J> I came to know Ron in the early 1980s through articles he contributed to (B
(J> Mining Magazine, of which I was editor, and his articles on mining in Chile for (B
(J> Mining Annual Review, of which I dealt with the Latin America section. When I (B
(J> went to Chile in 1981 to visit mines, I had a fabulous time when, after (B
(J> first arranging for me to visit the Pudahuel copper mine just outside Santiago, (B
(J> Ron and Sabine drove me north, covering 1,600 kilometres in seven days, and (B
(J> visiting the Andina copper mine high in the Andes; an iron-ore pellet plant at (B
(J> Huasco; the School of Mines in Copiapo; Chanarcillo, a nineteenth century (B
(J> silver mine once more in production; Oficina Alemania, a 'national monument' (B
(J> nitrate operation dating from 1880-1910; Mantos Blancos copper mine; Pedro de (B
(J> Valdivia (an active nitrate plant processing 11 million tonnes of caliche a (B
(J> year); and, finally the Chuquicamata copper mine. Leaving Ron and Sabine to (B
(J> drive back to Santiago, I flew back from Chuqui and visited the Molymet (B
(J> metallurgical plant in Santiago before moving on to visit mines in Venezuela.(B
(J> (B
(J> On another visit to Chile in 1990, after attending the Expomineria (B
(J> exhibition and then having a day off on the public holiday on 21st May celebrating the (B
(J> "Battle of Iquique" in 1879 during the war between Chile, Peru and Bolivia (B
(J> (essentially to gain control of the nitrate mining areas), I flew with Ron to (B
(J> Antofagasta. We hired a truck and drove north to see the copper concentrator (B
(J> and leach plant operated by the Compania Minera Carolina de Michilla SA, and (B
(J> also one of the underground mines supplying this plant, the Mina Susanna (B
(J> (working the deposit since exploited in the Lince open pit). The next day we (B
(J> passed the Punta de Lobos 1 million tonnes a year open pit salt mine, staying (B
(J> the night in the port of Iquique. The next day, a Friday, we visited the (B
(J> Oficina Laguna iodine operation. The weekend was spent visiting old nitrate mining (B
(J> operations: on Saturday in the Pintados area, where, near one of the old (B
(J> mines, a new iodine operation had recently started up; and on Sunday, old caliche (B
(J> mines further north, where we encountered yet more active iodine operations (B
(J> in progress.(B
(J> (B
(J> On the Monday we drove south from Pica mostly above the 4,000 metre level on (B
(J> unmade inland dirt roads, passing a rail terminal a Ujina used for the (B
(J> shipment of Bolivian sulphur exports and calling at Collaguasi, then a copper (B
(J> exploration site. We went back to Ujina and continued south on the dirt road, (B
(J> some of which had been washed away in a recent flash flood - a bit hairy, and (B
(J> not a place to break down! (Mine water pumped out and discharged into a ditch (B
(J> at the surface at Collaguasi, I had noted, froze within 100 metres of the pipe (B
(J> discharge even in the daytime!). Continuing south beyond Ollague, a border (B
(J> town on the railway route into Bolivia, we drove on a paved road to Calama, (B
(J> for another all-day visit the next day to Chuquicamata. The following day, on (B
(J> the road back from Chuqui to Antofagasta, we turned off a number of times (B
(J> seeking various small mines: one silver operation used multiple shallow shafts up (B
(J> which ore was hoisted in half-tonne kibbles, the technology generally (B
(J> reminiscent of De Re Metallica. Another 40 kilometre diversion on a dirt road (B
(J> seeking a gold mining prospect took us to a one-man salt mining operation, the (B
(J> operator living in an old bus in the dessert, and using his digger when asked to (B
(J> do so by the Mantos Blancos copper mine, who would send a truck to collect (B
(J> salt once in a while. Another diversion off the main road, this time of 57 (B
(J> kilometres, eventually took us to the San Cristobal gold-mining prospect we were (B
(J> seeking, where the Australian geologists on site welcomed the recent copies (B
(J> of Mining Journal I gave them with great enthusiasm. An overnight stay in (B
(J> Antofagasta was followed by a visit to the Escondida copper mine, then under (B
(J> development (the mill was still under construction).(B
(J> (B
(J> As you can see from the above, I received much help on my visits to Chile (B
(J> from Ron and Sabine Crozier, hence my interest in trying to help Sabine to (B
(J> solve her 'conundrum'.(B
(J> (B
(J> The question again(B
(J> (B
(J> Has anyone any ideas? One thought I had was to ask for a copy of the Spanish (B
(J> text on the CD, with a view to having the book, as it exists, covering the (B
(J> nineteenth century, translated into English, maybe even trying that myself (I (B
(J> did, years ago, spend 3$B".(J years in Mexico on an iron-ore mining/ore (B
(J> concentration project, to prepare feed for the Sicartsa steelworks in Lazaro Cardenas, (B
(J> so have a smattering of Spanish, plus a technical Spanish/English dictionary (B
(J> of mineral industry terms), but - would there be much interest in, or demand (B
(J> for, an English-language book on the history of the production of Chile (B
(J> saltpetre from the mining of the natural raw material caliche during the (B
(J> nineteenth century??? If so, I am sure others would be much better qualified to do the (B
(J> translation than I would be. Any volunteers?(B
(J> (B
(J> (B
(J> (B
(J> Footnote - pronunciation(B
(J> (B
(J> I was interested to hear some years ago an UK Open University lecturer, (B
(J> extolling the qualities of caliche in a TV programme which was part of the OU (B
(J> Science course my wife was taking, pronounce this as a two-syllable word, Kay - (B
(J> Leesh. It is, of course, a Spanish word, so pronounced with three syllables, (B
(J> something like ka - lee - ch$(D+1(J, the latter syllable more or less as in Che (B
(J> Guevarra.(B
(J> (B
(J> Sorry for the long-windedness of this posting.(B
(J> (B
(J> Tony Brewis (B


(J**************(B
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