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THE CORRECT ANSWER: Chañarcillo

Discovered in 1832 by a local guide in the Atacama Desert, the Chañarcillo mine became in just a few years the nerve center of silver production in Chile. The immense wealth drawn from its veins financed the modernization of the country, notably allowing the construction of one of the first railway networks in South America. Around the extraction shafts a thriving city has developed, housing thousands of miners, businesses, hospitals and infrastructure adapted to this extremely arid environment. However, the gradual depletion of the silver veins and increasing operating costs led to the inevitable decline of the site by the end of the 19th century. Completely deserted at the beginning of the 20th century, Chañarcillo is today nothing more than a field of ruins swept by the desert winds, where stone foundations, abandoned cemeteries and remains of mining galleries remain.