Mining operations

This is a project that uses the digital images of free satellite services and contrast them with how a regular person could see them in reality. Free digital satellite images provides a unique point of view that changes dramatically if we get to be standing in the same place. From the air, mining operations look as if they were modern geoglyphs that can be only appreciated from the sky. The landscape is irreversible changed by economy, blending in the horizon, getting to be seen as part of the geography, but never really seen as a whole and the impact that has on the nature. Chile produces one third of the world´s copper and is in the top five producers of silver and molybdenum. During the 70´s, mining was called “the salary of Chile” because it started to give huge tax revenues to the country. In 2006 and 2007, mining represented 30% of the tax revenues. But world crisis hit, and mining represented in 2015 only 6% of this same total. Now we face active mines that keep expanding and on the other hand abandoned mines that are still active reminders of huge economic growth: the evidence of what we do to extract and process, valuable natural resources.