Which desert of northern Chile contains the Chuquicamata copper mine?

The desert of northern Chile containing the Chuquicamata copper mine is the Atacama Desert.

Chuquicamata lies just outside Calama in Chile’s Antofagasta Region, at roughly 2,850 metres above sea level. The mine sits within the Atacama, a hyper-arid desert extending along much of northern Chile between the Pacific coast and the Andes. Its extreme dryness helped preserve mineral deposits near the surface and made large-scale open-pit extraction possible.

Copper working at Chuquicamata has ancient roots, but industrial mining expanded in the early twentieth century. The Chile Exploration Company began large-scale production in 1915, and Chile nationalized the operation in 1971. It is now operated by Codelco, Chile’s state-owned copper company; underground production began in 2019 as the mine transitioned away from its enormous open pit.

The main confusion is geographic: the Monte Desert is in Argentina, the Sechura Desert is in coastal Peru, and the Patagonian Desert is much farther south. Chuquicamata is firmly associated with the Atacama Desert.