In 2004 the saltpetre towns in the North of Chile and, in 2006, the largest underground copper mine in the world at Sewell, were declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites. This world recognition has, without doubt, produced an important change of view with regard to the significance and importance of industrial heritage in our society.
The National Copper Corporation, CODELCO, Chile's largest state-owned company, whose objective is to extract, prepare and sell copper, today represents in the region of 20% of the world market, making a profit of US $9.125 billion in 2006. Its main excavation is Chuquicamata, the largest open cast copper mine in the world. This complex is located at parallel 23.5 0 , 1,600km from Santiago in the middle of the desert and is almost a century old.
For production, industrial and human reasons, it has been decided to move the entire population of its miner's camp, at the edge of the mine itself, to the town of Calama , some 20km away. This process of moving the operators, technicians and professionals with their families involves a huge organisational, infrastructural and logistical challenge.
In the midst of these complex changes, there is an area that, it seems to me, is very important to highlight and talk about. As part of the project to move the workers to Calama, a "Chuquicamata Camp Preservation Plan” has been drawn up –a model project for any industry in Chile or throughout the world.


The Chuquicamata Camp Preservation Plan has the great merit of foreseeing and pre-empting the evacuation, defining conservation criteria, creating a protected zone and drafting a management model that guarantees the future survival of the site in line with its new, clearly cultural, function.


The plan consists of various development stages and during 2006 a dozen multi-disciplinary projects relating to the conservation of Chuquicamata Camp were carried out on behalf of those who took on the responsibility of collaboration and evaluation from a global perspective and within the framework of TICCIH-Chile, as a body specialised in themes of industrial heritage. These projects ranged from historical studies, surveys of the site's condition, collecting documentary material and socio-cultural anthropological studies to proposals about architecture, town-planning or museology, economic administrative schemes, and the management and preservation of the site.
To go into more detail would take too long and is not the purpose of this text. Our intention is, rather, to collaborate in spreading initiatives like this one, where the company, which in principle has neither preservation nor cultural management aims, has faced up to the challenge of incorporating the preservation of its heritage into the productive changes that CODELCO requires in order to maintain and improve its productivity and competitiveness. A heritage which does not belong only to the company but, rather, to the whole country and future generations. This is, in my judgement, an example worth highlighting, that has been possible thanks to a large degree, to the vision and forward thinking of many of CODELCO's professionals and executives. The transfer of this idea to other areas of industry, so dynamic and changeable these days, is essential.