The development of borax mining in the Salar de Ascotán and the production of an ecological subsidiarity: origins, tax exemptions, and the decimation of yareta (1880-1915)

Abstract

From the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries onward, the Salar de Ascotán, in northern Chile, was redefined by the mining economy which transformed the watershed into a great borax mining zone. Not only did this high-altitude zone become part of Chilean territory as a result of the War of the Pacific (1879–1884); it was also annexed into the global mining and natural resource extraction circuits that supplied the world’s major industrial centers, demonstrating the key role of this salt flat in perpetuating the logic of mining colonization pursued a certain foreign mining consortium. This article focuses on the early period of borax production, which not only required logistical infrastructure but also had a severe ecological impact. The emergence of extractivism in Ascotán can be broken down into four main aspects: 1) the reshaping of the territory as a result of the war, 2) the extraction and sale of its natural resources, 3) corporate profit amassed thanks to tax exemptions, and 4) unencumbered access to the salt flat’s surrounding ecosystems, particularly the impacts on and decimation of yareta (Azorella compacta) reserves in those areas. This process was a component of what we call an ecological subsidiarity, which resulted in the legal use and decimation of ecosystems, which were redefined as resources for the purpose of satisfying the demand for minerals. This demonstrates how extractivism was able to burst onto the scene in an arid, high-altitude region that has been misunderstood as an isolated periphery of capitalist expansion in northern Chile.