干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

The Atacama Desert has both one of the best solar resources in the world, as well as huge mineral deposits that include copper, iron, nitrates, and lithium. In the past these resources were exploited in a non-sustainable way, which led to the burning of the scarce forests that existed and the overexploitation of water resources.

Pioneering work was done there in water desalination, the determination of solar spectra and solar constant and the utilization of solar energy in some mining processes. Today, renewable energy, and especially solar, has lowered the cost of electricity provided to the mining sector, and has also been directly applied in three cases for obtaining process heat to aid copper electrowinning production.

In this paper we present both the past, present and future of the relationship between solar energy and mining in Chile. Special emphasis is given to what is known today and further research topics that must be addressed to properly use this vast resource.