When historian James Lockhart published “Encomienda and Hacienda” in 1969, the modern historiography on the topic was already more than forty-years-old.… Read More Between Two Worlds: Andean Haciendas in Colonial History
(Published originally in Mediato) La mina de oro y plata Río Blanco, atacada y quemada este mes por manifestantes de la comunidad, es emblemática en la industria minera ecuatoriana por todas las razones equivocadas. Haciendo caso omiso a la resistencia de las comunidades locales, del Municipio de Cuenca y de la provincia del Azuay, el gobierno… Read More Minería: del dicho al hecho
(Published originally in Mediato) El referéndum del 4 de febrero fue significativo. En su nivel más obvio, le dio al presidente Lenín Moreno una sólida victoria política y al expresidente Rafael Correa una derrota asombrosa. Pero más allá de las reacciones en Quito, los votantes en las zonas mineras de la Sierra y el Oriente… Read More Ecuador habló: La minería es peor que Correa
By Nathan Gill Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) — Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA, Chile’s biggest fertilizer producer, tumbled to the lowest price in seven weeks after reporting a 57 percent drop in third-quarter profit. The Santiago-based company, known as Soquimich, retreated 2 percent in Santiago trading to 19,470 pesos, the lowest since Sept. 7.… Read More Chile’s Soquimich Falls to Seven-Week Low on Earnings Decline
By James Attwood and Nathan Gill Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) — Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA, Chile’s biggest fertilizer producer, reported a 57 percent drop in third-quarter profit as lower prices dragged down sales. Net income fell to $82.3 million from $191 million a year earlier, the Santiago-based company known as Soquimich wrote today… Read More Soquimich Profit Drops 57% on Lower Fertilizer Sales
By Matt Craze and Nathan Gill Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) — BHP Billiton Ltd. workers at the company’s Spence copper mine in Chile broke off wage talks with management, according to a union official. Workers at the mine, who began the 14th day of a strike today, will stage protests after government-mediated talks failed, union President… Read More BHP Spence Copper Workers End Chile Wage Negotiations
By Matt Craze and Nathan Gill Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) — BHP Billiton Ltd. workers at the Spence copper mine in northern Chile are prepared to go on strike for a “long time” unless the company improves its wage and benefits offer, a union official said. Spence workers are seeking similar terms to BHP workers at… Read More BHP Spence Workers Warn of ‘Long’ Strike Over Pay
By Nathan Gill Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) — BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, said copper production at its Spence mine in northern Chile continues at a “reduced rate” as a strike by workers enters an eighth day, an official said. BHP declined to specify the current production rate, according to Ruban Yogarajah, a… Read More BHP Says Spence Output Continues at ‘Reduced Rate’
By Nathan Gill Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) — BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, said a strike at the company’s Spence copper mine in Chile entered a fifth day. Copper output at the Melbourne-based company’s 200,000-ton-a-year mine continued at a slower rate, spokesman Ruban Yogarajah said today in a telephone interview from London. Unionized… Read More Strike at BHP’s Spence Mine in Chile Enters 5th Day
By Nathan Gill Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) — BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, said copper output at its 200,000-ton-a-year Spence mine in Chile continues at a “slower rate” as a strike by workers entered a fourth day. Production was “the same as yesterday,” spokesman Mauro Valdes responded by text message to questions from… Read More BHP’s Spence Mine Copper Producing at ‘Slower Rate’
By Nathan Gill and Matthew Craze Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) — BHP Billiton Ltd. will cease production of refined copper tomorrow at its 200,000-ton-a-year Spence copper mine in Chile because of a strike, a union leader said. Workers stopped mining on Oct. 13, leaving BHP without enough raw materials to be turned into refined copper, union… Read More BHP to Stop Copper Output at Spence Mine, Union Says
By Nathan Gill Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) — Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA, the world’s largest lithium producer, led declines on Santiago’s Ipsa Index after announcing price cuts for the metal used in batteries. Soquimich, as the company is known, fell 3.6 percent to 20,630 pesos, the steepest decline since June 22. The Ipsa… Read More Chile’s Soquimich Falls Most Since June on Lithium Price Cuts
By James Attwood and Nathan Gill Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) — BHP Billiton Ltd. workers at the Spence copper mine in Chile voted in favor of a strike, rejecting a pay offer by the company, a union official said. Workers in the Spence mine union voted 525 to 1 late yesterday against BHP’s offer, Pedro Marin,… Read More BHP Spence Workers Reject Pay Offer, Approve Strike
By Nathan Gill Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) — Copper output in Chile, the world’s biggest producer, rose 7.8 percent in August from a year earlier after state-owned Codelco and BHP Billiton Ltd. boosted production, the government said. Output increased to 459,823 metric tons from 426,689 tons a year earlier, the country’s national statistics agency said in… Read More Chile Copper Output Rises 7.8% on Codelco, BHP Mines
By James Attwood and Nathan Gill Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) — Molibdenos y Metales SA, the world’s largest molybdenum processor, said a plant near Santiago is operating normally after a fire broke out this morning. Industrial installations at the San Bernardo plant weren’t damaged and no one was injured in the blaze, the Santiago-based company, known… Read More Molymet Says Chile Plant Operations Normal After Fire
By Matt Craze and Nathan Gill Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) — Antofagasta Plc, which is planning a $1 billion expansion of its biggest copper mine, will seek financing by year-end for the project in Chile, Chairman Jean-Paul Luksic said. “We are looking for financing with banks overseas, and it most probably won’t be through bonds, it… Read More Antofagasta Seeks Funds to Expand Biggest Copper Mine
By Nathan Gill Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) — Gold Fields Ltd. and Cia. de Minas Buenaventura SA halted exploration of their Titan-Arabe gold and copper deposit in northern Peru after protests by local residents turned deadly, the head of the joint venture said. “We saw that there were constant threats, so we took the decision to… Read More Gold Fields Halts Peru Exploration Project on Protest
Karen Spalding’s history of colonial Peru, Huarochirí, begins with the origins of Andean society, following social changes from pre-Inca days until the height of colonial rule. Written in the mid-1980s amidst a brutal economic crisis that inordinately impacted indigenous communities in areas like Huarochirí, this monograph seems an attempt to revalorize Andean society at a… Read More Huarochirí: Karen Spalding
Peter Bakewell’s Miners of the Red Mountain: Indian Labor in Potosí, 1545-1650 (1984) looks at the changing systems of labor and production used at the silver mines of Potosí in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Bakewell questions the long-held assumption that the mines were overwhelmingly worked by forced laborers, arguing instead that declining… Read More Miners of the Red Mountain: Peter Bakewell
Stern, Steve J. Peru’s Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest: Huamanga to 1640. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982. Steve Stern’s Peru’s Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest: Huamanga to 1640 centers on colonial Huamanga, a strategic military and economic region along the route between Lima and Potosí. It was… Read More Peru’s Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest: Steve Stern
Jürgen Golte’s Repartos y Rebeliones, published in German in 1977 and translated into Spanish by Carlos Degregori in 1980, analyzes the implementation, evolution, and resistance to the repartimiento de efectos, put in place by Spain’s Bourbon reformers in the eighteenth century.[1] Golte sought to revise earlier studies that overlooked the role of the repartos, a… Read More Repartos y Rebeliones: Jürgen Golte
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