deposited by colloidal copper solutions leached from the main deposit, included manganese bearing copper pitch and copper wad, along with other impurities which made the ore difficult to leach in the original vats and produced a substandard cathode. The 'exotic' ore is now being heap leached and the copper extracted by SX/EW which leaves the impurities behind in the leach solution. It is expected that this operation will produce 129,000 tonnes of good quality copper cathode annually. Secondary waste dump leach This is the leaching of certain copper bearing waste dumps and is expected to produce 26,000 tonnes of copper annually. Ministro Alejandro Hales (formerly Mansa Mina) This is a major discovery that was made between Chuquicamata and Calama. It was initially estimated to have reserves of over 500 million tonnes grading over 1% copper, but was found to be geologically complex and have a high arsenic content and work was stopped on it for some years. Work resumed in 2000, as a result of the development of a process to treat high arsenic ores, the need for sulphide ore feed to the mill when Chuquicamata's mining goes underground and to test bioleaching technology. It is also possible that it may enable an expansion of the sulphide mill's capacity. Pollution For many years Chuquicamata, particularly its smelter, was a byword for pollution and the inhabitants of the Chuquicamata camp and Calama had serious amounts of arsenic in their blood. This has changed drastically. The camp at Chuquicamata has been closed and the inhabitants moved to Calama, away from the dust and general pollution close to the mine. The off gasses from the flash smelter, Teniente converter and Pierce-Smith converters have a high enough sulphur dioxide content to allow sulphuric acid production in a single absorption sulphuric acid plant which has improved sulphur capture to 98%. The corporation also planned some years ago to reduce arsenic emissions by 97% but there have been no recent reports. Pollution of the River Loa, which flows through Calama is a problem which is being addressed but little has been reported. Salvador The El Salvador mine is a combined open pit and underground copper mine in the company town of El Salvador. The El Salvador mine was purchased by Anaconda Copper, who had little intention of mining it, due to high tax rates by the Chilean government. When the tax rates were reduced Anaconda decided