The Atmospheres of Chilean Copper Moralities

From ancient times copper mining has been a key element for the materialisation of the civilisation processes. From the weapons and ornaments of the Western Asian settlements 1.000 BC to the chips and wirings of contemporary hybrid cars, copper has had a privileged position advancing human capacities with its versatility. However, intensive pollution derived from copper mining has also been a prevalent issue that can be traced twenty five centuries back to the smelters of Roman Empire times, as some recent sediments analysis in Greenland have recently shown (Hong et al, 1996). Additionally, copper has been relevant in international disputes over natural resources, as can be seen in Chile in the middle of the Cold War, with a process that sought to recover national sovereignty over copper and ended up with the imposition of a dictatorship. Following an actor-network perspective, this presentation is focused on the role of copper shaping the institutional settings of Chile. The analysis is mainly based on the negotiation of air quality standards and emissions caps that lasted for more than twelve years (between the late 1990’s until 2012), and explores the different copper ontologies related to health, pollution, energy, and globalisation among others, mobilised during that process. Reviewing the proceedings of the expert panels and public statements made by the bodies involved in these negotiations, the agencies of copper are rendered visible as well as the dependency and subordination of Chilean institutions to the needs of the currently in place copper production schemes. This refers not just to the local schemes, but to its intimate connections with the global copper dynamics, which are currently dominated to a great extent by China. It is argued that a way out of this entanglement should be designed, cutting across the cause-effect relations that compose current Chilean copper moralities.