Smelting and Refining Copper in Chile: The Importance of Local Pollutants

This work aims to illustrate the importance of local pollutants in the copper smelting and refining process. While there is a benefit to the global atmosphere of smelting and refining all copper in Chile, as shown by Sturla et al. (2020), it is necessary to take into account that, if such a policy is implemented, the country will have to bear a high pollution burden. Thus, this work addresses aspects that cannot be left out of a policy for copper concentrate: i) recognize the problem, ii) identify the most important pollutants, iii) review national and international literature, iv) identify problems associated with health and the environment, v) show the example of a slaughter area in Chile, and vi) refer to some estimated costs for the identified impacts. The work has a more informative than conclusive role, fundamentally as an input for a public policy for Chilean copper.