Pirquinero

In Chile and nearby areas of Argentina and Bolivia a pirquinero (from Quechua pircca) is a miner who extracts minerals in a traditional manner and is usually independent. A charactistic of the pirquineros is that they are involved in a wide range of stages of the production including mineral prospecting, extraction and processing. The activity is typically associated with low capital investments and the use of rudimentary technology. There are pirquineros that work on gold, copper and, in the localities of south-central Chile of Coronel and Lota, coal. The Norte Chico region of Chile is historically the place with most intense pirquinero activity. More specifically pirquineros in Chile concentrate in the communes of Diego de Almagro, Andacollo, Vallenar, Copiapó, Tocopilla, Chañaral and Taltal.

For legal pourposes any workforce of more than six persons is too large to be considered pirquineros in Chilean legislation. Pirquineros in Chile have since 1984 a workplace insurance against occupational injury and illnesses. In Chile the pirquineros usually sell their output to middlemen or directly to ENAMI (National Mining Enterprise).

Some media have tended to equate pirquineros with illegal miners, but their activity is legal and recognised by the Chilean state. The term chucullero is sometimes used pejoratively for pirquineros who are illegal miners, but this is not always the case as chucullero also refers more generally to any pirquinero specialized in precious metals, mostly gold.