The nationalization of the Chilean iron mining and steelmaking industries was a process in which the Chilean government acquired control of the major local and foreign-owned section of the steelmaking and iron mining industry in the country.
The nationalization of iron occurred in parallel to the final stages of the much larger and lasting Chilean nationalization of copper.
Iron mining in Chile was largely restricted to El Tofo prior to the arrival of the Hungarian immigrants Andrés Andai and Emérico Letay who revolutionized the industry in the 1950s. The main mining companies founded by these immigrants were CompañÃÂa Minera Santa Fe and CompañÃÂa Minera Santa Bárbara.
The partial foreign ownership of CompañÃÂa Minera Santa Fe and its arrangements with American companies Phillip Brothers and Isbrandtsen were subject a harsh criticism from socialist Senator Aniceto RodrÃÂguez in the National Congress of Chile in 1966. More specifically RodrÃÂguez criticized that Phillip Brothers owned a large part of the stocks of CompañÃÂa Minera Santa Fe and also owned CAFORE that purchased the ore and that the sales were thus an internal operation. RodrÃÂguez took the occasion of this speech in the congress in 1966 to call to nationalize the iron mining industry. In the same yeart the poor working conditions in the iron mine of Sositas âÂÂin which Daniel Farkas was identified as being in chargeâ were denounced in the National Congress of Chile by Senator Julieta Campusano.
Compañia Minera Santa Bárbara bought CompañÃÂa Minera Santa Fe in 1967.
At the onset of the nationalization the largest iron mining operations in Chile were El Algarrobo of CompañÃÂa de Acero del PacÃÂfico (CAP) and El Romeral of Bethlehem Chile Iron Mines. Together these companies mined 50% of all iron in Chile. CompañÃÂa Minera Santa Fe and CompañÃÂa Minera Santa Bárbara were in a trend of diminishing production in the early 1970s.
The government of Salvador Allende initiated the nationalization of steel proudction and iron mining in Chile by taking control of CAP. To achieve this minister of economy Pedro Vuskovic reached a purchase agreement with the owners of CAP in December 1970. CAP, then transformed into a state-owned company, purchased the property of Bethlehem Chile Iron Mines, and CompañÃÂa Minera Santa Bárbara. Further, after a 1971 government decree that declared all mining concessions of iron ore deposits that were not being mined expired, CAP acquired the properties of El Laco, Cerro Negro Norte, Los Colorados and many other prospects.
The owners of CompañÃÂa Minera Santa Bárbara negotiation a favoruable sale and the company was merged into CAP. With the expropriation of the assets of Bethlehem Chile Iron Mines CAP came to control the mines of El Tofo and El Romeral. The acquisition of El Romeral proved with time to be a good business as a diamond drilling campaign that started in 1973 and a 1976 magnetometric study showed according to a 1979 analysis that the reserves of El Romeral were far larger than previously believed and larger than those of El Algarrobo.
CAP was privatized in 1982, and made into a holding company with mining operations carried out by its subsidiary CompañÃÂa Minera del PacÃÂfico (CMP). This company stood for 99% of Chilean iron exports as of 2022.