Chile Forum

thisisreallycomplicated wrote:

helibel wrote:never mind!
it appears that el Romero refers to the area where the Lamber/ San Geronimo mine is located, not to an actual mine of that name???
If you enlarge the map the area is dotted with mines. I can not imagine that would be goid farm land , but the area that is actually labeled El Romero appears to be green and near the river.

El Romero is the area where the plot of land I'm thinking of buying is. It's been farmed before, and there are some goats there. But when you're standing on the plot, you can see the mines. I've been told that the mines belong to Lambert. But I'm relying on someone who translates for me, so I don't know if I missed anything because of the translation. My concern is that the mines are too close, and may cause contamination, since they're close enough to be clearly visible. The mines were downwind when I was there, but I was only there once, and I imagine the winds could shift. And that wouldn't help with ground water contamination. If I could even access the ground water.

please let me know about the test results

cosmodyseeus wrote:

thisisreallycomplicated wrote:

helibel wrote:never mind!
it appears that el Romero refers to the area where the Lamber/ San Geronimo mine is located, not to an actual mine of that name???
If you enlarge the map the area is dotted with mines. I can not imagine that would be goid farm land , but the area that is actually labeled El Romero appears to be green and near the river.

El Romero is the area where the plot of land I'm thinking of buying is. It's been farmed before, and there are some goats there. But when you're standing on the plot, you can see the mines. I've been told that the mines belong to Lambert. But I'm relying on someone who translates for me, so I don't know if I missed anything because of the translation. My concern is that the mines are too close, and may cause contamination, since they're close enough to be clearly visible. The mines were downwind when I was there, but I was only there once, and I imagine the winds could shift. And that wouldn't help with ground water contamination. If I could even access the ground water.

please let me know about the test results

Have we scared you away yet?

Going back a bit, I made a comment about pirquineros (my spelling was slightly off). They are just small-scale artisanal miners. What that means is that they mine any crappy bit of outcropping mineralisation they can find in the hope of making a few quick bucks. They have few safety standards and likely operate somewhat outside the norms (laws, best practices etc) that longer term operations have to deal with.

Their typical operations here in the north are for oxide copper minerals (bright blue and green colours, if you get up close), which are then sold to Enami for processing (the reason Enami exists). i.e. these guys typically do NOT do any processing of their ore on site - no chemicals "contaminating" anything. Visual contamination is another story - these guys are usually slobs and leave all of their rubbish on site when they leave.

So, that's pirquineros. Whether that is what you are looking at, or something larger in scale and currently operating (complete with on site processing), or historical mines, only you will know, unless you provide photos...

ryanar wrote:Going back a bit, I made a comment about pirquineros (my spelling was slightly off). .

Around here they seem to be called "pirqueros" though I have seen both spellings.

Los pirqueros: mineros pobres sin patrones que se meten por cuenta propia en minas abandonadas, afrontando peores riesgos aún, para desgajar algún resto de mineral cuando ya no queda casi nada.

Be aware that the term has some vulgar overtones.

Pirquero probably comes from "pirca" which is an indigenous term (Quechua) for a stone wall. And the word pirquero is also used to mean somebody who builds those stone walls. There is a pass between CL and AR called " Pircas Negras."

thisisreallycomplicated wrote:

cosmodyseeus wrote:

thisisreallycomplicated wrote:

helibel wrote:never mind!
it appears that el Romero refers to the area where the Lamber/ San Geronimo mine is located, not to an actual mine of that name???
If you enlarge the map the area is dotted with mines. I can not imagine that would be goid farm land , but the area that is actually labeled El Romero appears to be green and near the river.

El Romero is the area where the plot of land I'm thinking of buying is. It's been farmed before, and there are some goats there. But when you're standing on the plot, you can see the mines. I've been told that the mines belong to Lambert. But I'm relying on someone who translates for me, so I don't know if I missed anything because of the translation. My concern is that the mines are too close, and may cause contamination, since they're close enough to be clearly visible. The mines were downwind when I was there, but I was only there once, and I imagine the winds could shift. And that wouldn't help with ground water contamination. If I could even access the ground water.

please let me know about the test results

Have we scared you away yet?

I don't scare really these all sound like realistic challenges