Abstract

The city of Taltal, located on the north coast of Chile, with central coordinates S 25 degrees 23 '52" and W 70 degrees 28' 35", is important for small-scale mining. Depending on the price of metals, the population moves between mining and fishing. A pair of tailings dams called S1 and S2 belonging to a private company, currently abandoned, were studied. This small company was created only to process minerals that were contributed by mines located approximately 100-120 km south of the city. This study was conducted with a complete approach of mineralogical, elementary and geostatistical modelling. The deposits were characterized as copper flotation tailings and mercury - gold amalgams. The goal of this study is to know the existence and abundance of elements that can give added value to these abandoned deposits. As well as the presence of heavy metals. The results obtained agree with this fact, identifying several copper ores (mainly oxides, oxidized and sulphide minerals). Copper has average concentrates of 0.27% in S1, and 0.48% in S2). In addition, it was possible to identify the presence of gold (0.26 ppm S1, 0.53 ppm S2 as averages) and high concentrations of heavy metals (mercury and arsenic) that could potentially be toxic. Rare earths were also identified as value-added elements and with competitive concentrations that will be addressed in subsequent studies.