Mining tailings dumps and socio-territorial inequalities in Chile: an exploratory study

Figures & data

Figure 1. Data processing diagram. Source: authors’ own.

Read the detailed description of this figure

Flowchart describes the data processed through GIS in order to represent the socioeconomic inequality related to tailings deposits in Chile. Two input databases are used; multidimensional poverty index by communes and mining deposits cadastre obtained from the National Geology and Mining Service, updated to 2020. From the latter, we proceed to select only the communes that have mining tailings deposits. This selection of data is crossed with the multidimensional poverty data by commune, creating a new attribute. According to these results, the communes are grouped considering the reference line (national average of the poverty index). Then the groupings are categorized according to the concentration of tailings deposits. Finally, the output data will be the following classifications: (i) 1 to 2 deposits low concentration (ii) 3 to 9 deposits medium concentration (iii) 10 to 44 deposits high concentration (iv) 45 to 123 deposits very high concentration. The results are mapped for subsequent comparative analysis between groups above and below the national average of the multidimensional poverty index used as a baseline.

Figure 2. Scatter diagram. Source: authors’ own.

A purple horizontal line is drawn on the Y-axis at 20.7, a yellow line is drawn at 25.5, which establishes the average multidimensional poverty index of the communes with at least one tailings deposit, a red line at 28.07 represents the average of map 2, and a green line at 17.27 represents the average of map 1.

Table 1. Municipalities and concentration of tailings deposits.

	No. of municipalities	% In respect to the total no. of municipalities with tailings deposits	No. of tailings	% Respect to the total no. of tailings deposits
Low concentration	27	39.7%	35	4.6%
Medium concentration	21	30.9%	103	13.6%
High concentration	16	23.5%	298	39.4%
Very high concentration	4	5.9%	321	42.4%
Total	68	100%	757	100%

Source: authors’ own.

Table 2. Category in relation to multidimensional poverty average.

Category	Number of municipalities	%
Above national average	49	72.1%
Below national average	19	27.9%
Total	68	100%

Source: authors’ own.

Table 3. Municipalities, multidimensional poverty and tailings deposits (frequency in relation to concentration of tailings deposits).

	Low concentration	Medium concentration	High concentration	Very high concentration	Total
Above national average	77.78% (21)	66.67% (14)	62.50% (10)	100.00% (4)	72% (49)
Below national average	22.22% (6)	33.33% (7)	37.50% (6)	0.00% (0)	28% (19)
Total	100% (27)	100% (21)	100% (16)	100% (4)	100% 68

Source: authors’ own. Note: values approximated to the hundreds.

Data availability statement (DAS)

The database ‘Tailings deposits and multidimensional poverty in Chile’ that we built in this research, is available in open access so that researchers can replicate the study or use the data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7044851

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