Ruinas de Huanchaca

Ruinas de Huanchaca is a former silver smelter in Antofagasta, Chile, with andesite stone walls rising against the coastal landscape. The facility consists of four distinct sections including workshops, smelting furnaces and refining areas, now preserved as an open-air monument.

The facility was built between 1888 and 1892 and could process 200 tons of ore daily, producing 3.85 tons of refined silver monthly. Operations ceased in the 1940s when silver deposits were depleted and the plant was shut down.

The original machine room became the Military Chapel of Our Lady of Carmen in 1942, marking an industrial to religious space conversion. Since 1993 an annual Christmas concert takes place between the massive stone walls, with music and fireworks transforming the old smelting furnaces into an open-air stage.

The site remains open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00 with free admission. Several TransAntofagasta bus lines stop nearby and provide easy access to the facility.

The thickness of the andesite walls reaches over one meter (3 feet) in places and was calculated to withstand the enormous heat of the smelting furnaces. The coastal location allowed direct ore transport by ship from Bolivian mines in the Atacama Desert.