{{italic title}} {{short description|Traditional mining occupation of the Andes Mountains}}
In Chile and nearby areas of Argentina<ref name=rae/><ref name=neuquen>{{Cite news |title=El pirquinero Contreras, un buscador de fulgores |last=Baliña |first=Juan Pablo |date=2006-09-10 |url=https://www.lanacion.com.ar/sociedad/el-pirquinero-contreras-un-buscador-de-fulgores-nid838796/ |work=La Nación |language=es}}</ref> and Bolivia<ref name=rae>{{Cite web |title=pirquinero, ra |url=https://dle.rae.es/pirquinero |last=Real Academia Española |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Diccionario de la lengua española |language=es}}</ref> a '''{{lang|es|pirquinero}}''' ({{ety|qu|pircca}}{{sfn|Godoy Orellana|2016|p=38}}) is a miner who extracts minerals in a traditional manner and is usually independent. A charactistic of the {{lang|es|pirquineros}} is that they are involved in a wide range of stages of the production including mineral prospecting, extraction and processing.<ref name=museo/> The activity is typically associated with low capital investments and the use of rudimentary technology.{{sfn|Godoy Orellana|2016|p=31}} There are {{lang|es|pirquineros}} that work on gold, copper and, in the localities of south-central Chile of Coronel and Lota, coal.<ref name=museo>{{Cite web |title=La tradición pirquinera en el valle del Huasco |url=https://www.museodeatacama.gob.cl/colecciones/la-tradicion-pirquinera-en-el-valle-del-huasco |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Museo Regional de Atacama |language=es}}</ref><ref name=neuquen/><ref name=Brilla>{{Cite news |title=El nuevo impulso del hierro en Chile |last=Revista Minería Chilena |date=2011-08-05 |url=https://www.mch.cl/negocios-industria/el-nuevo-impulso-del-hierro-en-chile/ |work=Minería Chilena |language=es|access-date=2025-05-10}}</ref> The Norte Chico region of Chile is historically the place with most intense {{lang|es|pirquinero}} activity.{{sfn|Godoy Orellana|2016|p=37}} More specifically {{lang|es|pirquineros}} in Chile concentrate in the communes of Diego de Almagro, Andacollo, Vallenar, Copiapó, Tocopilla, Chañaral and Taltal.<ref name=museo/>
[[file:Vista posterior del Monumento al Pirquinero - panoramio.jpg|thumb|250px|{{lang|es|Monumento al pirquinero}} in Tierra Amarilla, Atacama Region.]] For legal purposes any workforce of more than six persons is too large to be considered {{lang|es|pirquineros}} in Chilean legislation.{{sfn|Godoy Orellana|2016|p=32}} {{lang|es|Pirquineros}} in Chile have since 1984 a workplace insurance against occupational injury and illnesses.{{sfn|Godoy Orellana|2016|p=31}} In Chile the {{lang|es|pirquineros}} usually sell their output to middlemen or directly to ENAMI (National Mining Enterprise).<ref name=canada>{{Cite journal |title=Urban Symbiosis: A Study of Company Town Camp Followers in the Atacama Desert |journal=North-South Canadian Journal of Latin American Studies |last=Porteous |first=J. Douglas |volume=3 |issue=5-6 |pages=210-221 |year=1978 |quote=Once a truckload of ore is gathered, it is delivered to the government smelter at Paipote, or to middlemen. ln the Chuquicamata area, ore has been sold to the Empresa Nacional de Minera (ENAMI), a government agency.}}</ref>
Some media have tended to equate {{lang|es|pirquineros}} with illegal miners,<ref>{{Cite news |title=El Gobierno rechaza la participación de mineros ilegales en el rescate de los 33 atrapados |date=2010-08-20 |url=http://www.europapress.es/latam/chile/noticia-gobierno-rechaza-participacion-mineros-ilegales-rescate-33-atrapados-20100820204917.html |work=Europa Press |language=es}}</ref> but their activity is legal and recognised by the Chilean state.<ref>''Discurso del expresidente, señor Ricardo Lagos Escobar''. Disponible en el sitio web de la Empresa Nacional de Minería de Chile, [http://www.enami.cl/common/asp/pagAtachadorVisualizador.asp?argCryptedData=LdcYc0FykrpToy5iuAjJNKcO20IRVhnyHUI0QeYDnY8=&argModo=inline&argArchivoId=&ei=FSlwTMKUOcKB8gaIzqytDQ&usg=AFQjCNE2Z31kbVRP4FyZOECPbC5Ux_gP9g&sig2=6YNa1H0bGTEPXs8GycNIDw Ricardo Lagos.doc], Dice: “El capital humano que, por ejemplo, se refleja en este libro y que va desde el pirquinero, al más sabio de los ingenieros.”</ref>{{better source needed|date=February 2025}} The term {{lang|es|chucullero}} is sometimes used pejoratively for {{lang|es|pirquineros}} who are illegal miners, but this is not always the case as {{lang|es|chucullero}} also refers more generally to any {{lang|es|pirquinero}} specialized in precious metals, mostly gold.<ref>{{Cite web |title=chucullero |url=https://www.tesauroregional.cl/terminos/3598 |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=Tesauro Regional Patrimonial|publisher=Centro de Documentación de Bienes Patrimoniales |language=es |quote=Término utilizado para designar, por lo general, a pirquineros especialmente dedicados a la tarea de extraer pequeños volúmenes de oro. El término también se usa de forma negativa para identificar a los extractores ilegales de metales preciosos.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Dos muertos deja derrumbe en pique minero clausurado |url=https://www.mch.cl/negocios-industria/dos-muertos-deja-derrumbe-en-pique-minero-clausurado/ |date=2011-01-11 |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=Minería Chilena |language=es}}</ref>
==Techniques, training and lifestyle== Small, high-grade, unexploited deposits such as narrow veins in abandoned mines are one of the main targets of pirquineros and scavanging waste rock dumps through ''pallaqueo'' in these sites is usually a secondary activity.<ref name=canada/> ''Pallaqueo'' is the hand selection of ore fragments for processing which allows to increase the over-all grade of the processed ore.{{sfn|Camus|2005|p=236}} A type of estimation of ore grade in use by pirquineros is called ''puruñar'' or ''cachear'' and consists of putting finely crushed rock in a bull's horn split in half and diluting it in water. Then the content is poured over to a bottle cap which allows for a visual estimation of small gold grains in the rock.<ref name=etno>{{Cite journal |title=Prácticas de duración de la pequeña minería chilena desde un enfoque etnográfico |journal=Disciplinarum Scientia. Série: Sociais Aplicadas |last=Jorquera Álvarez |first=Pamela Francisca |url=https://periodicos.ufn.edu.br/index.php/disciplinarumSA/article/view/3394/2552 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=137-151 |trans-title=Practices of duration of small Chilean mining from an ethnographic approach |language=es |doi=10.37778/dscsa.v16n1-009|doi-access=free }}</ref> The profit made by pirquineros is highly variable and investments carry high uncertainties.<ref name=etno/> Despite these adversities some pirquineros value their trade for the independence and liberty they enjoy compared to paid employment.<ref name=etno/>
Pirquineros are skilled workers albeit since mining different mineral resources are associated with different skills reconversion within the field may be difficult.<ref name=Brilla/> Knowledge of the trade is usually passed down from older to younger generations in a family and many operations are family business.<ref name=etno/>{{sfn|Godoy Orellana|2016|p=49}}
==History== {{see also|1964 Andacollo mining accident}} Historically pirquinero activity have had many ups and downs depending on the price of metals<ref name=ortega2010/> and economic crisis such as the Great Depression.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Etnografía histórica de la migración croata y chilota en la fiebre del oro en Porvenir, Tierra del Fuego, Chile 1930-1990 |journal=Estudios Atacameños |last=Saldívar |first=Juan M. |url=https://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0718-10432020000300347&script=sci_arttext&tlng=pt#B17 |volume=66 |trans-title=Historical Ethnography of the croatian and chilotes migration in the gold rush of Porvenir, Tierra del Fuego, Chile 1930-1990 |language=es |doi=10.22199/issn.0718-1043-2020-0054|year=2020|doi-access=free }}</ref> Some pirquineros would reconvert into farmers when metal prices were low.<ref name=ortega2010/> Historically pirquineros have often faced some degree of opposition from wealthy mining interests dating at least back to the 18th century.<ref name=museo/> Before mineral exploration became commonplace among mining companies in the late 1940s and 1950s, pirquineros and other small miners were crucial to identify new prospects.{{sfn|Camus|2005|p=232}}{{sfn|Camus|2005|p=241}}
From 1974 onwards the output of pirquineros have been drastically overshadowed by those of large mining companies formed by foreign investment that entered the country following the Decreto Ley 600.<ref name=museo/> Since at least the late 20th century pirquinero activity and lifestyle is in decline.<ref name=museo/><ref name=Brilla/><ref name=neuquen/> However, the 2000s commodities boom made copper mining particularly profitable among pirquineros from 2004 to 2008.<ref name=Brilla/><ref name=ortega2010>{{Cite journal |title=La minería del cobre del Norte Chico (tradicional) y los medianos y pequeños productores en perspectiva histórica |journal=Si Somos Americanos |last=Ortega Martinez |first=Luis |url=https://sisomosamericanos.cl/index.php/sisomosamericanos/article/view/14/20 |year=2010 |trans-title=Copper mining Norte Chico (traditional) and the medium and small producers in historical perspective |language=es |doi=10.61303/07190948.v10i2.14|doi-access=free }}</ref>
==Main legislation impacting pirquinero activity== *Decreto Fuerza de Ley 19 (Chile, 1984) – Pirquineros granted workplace insurance against occupational injury and illnesses. *Ley N° 19.719 (Chile, 2001) – Sets the maximum number of pirquineros in a team at six.<ref>[https://www.sernageomin.cl/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Ley19719Estableceunapatentemineraespecialpequenosminerosyminerosartesanales.pdf Ley 19719]</ref>
==See also== *Chileans in the California gold rush *Chilean mill *Gold mining in Chile *Guaire miners *Juan Godoy *The Aragonese *Tierra del Fuego gold rush
== External links== *[https://www.museodeatacama.gob.cl/galeria/la-labor-del-pirquinero La labor del pirquinero], photo gallery of pirquinero material culture by Museo Regional de Atacama.
==References== {{reflist}}
;Bibliography *{{cite book |last=Camus |first=Francisco |date=2005|chapter=La minería y la evolución de la exploración en Chile |title=Minería y desarrollo |editor-last=Lagos |editor-first=Gustavo |language=es |location=Santiago, Chile |publisher=Ediciones Universidad Católica de Chile |pages=229–270 |isbn=956-14-0844-9}} *{{Cite journal|language=es|title=Minería popular y estrategias de supervivencia: Pirquineros y pallacos en el Norte Chico, Chile, 1780-1950|journal=Cuadernos de Historia|url=https://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0719-12432016000200002|last=Godoy Orellana|first=Milton|doi=10.4067/S0719-12432016000200002|number=45|year=2016|pages=29–62|trans-title=Popular mining and survival strategies: Pirquineros and pallacos in the Norte Chico, Chile, 1780-1950}}
Category:Miners Category:Mining in Argentina Category:Mining in Chile Category:Mining in Bolivia Category:Traditional mining Category:Tradespeople