Mining and development in the region of Antofagasta

The objective of this paper is to analyse the effect of mining on economic and social development in the region of Antofagasta from 1985 to 2008. Analysis of development is restricted to spheres described by available indicators used by several international and non-governmental organizations such as income distribution, education, health, poverty, human development and security, satisfaction, cost of living, income per capita, GDP per capita, employment, productive activity, added value and its distribution. Correlation between some of these variables is estimated as well as the gap between these indicators and those of developed countries.The region has advanced towards development since the 1990s, especially on what concerns economic indicators such as income per capita and income distribution where it ranks ahead from the rest of Chile and close to some developed countries. However, it is still far behind in some of the key social indicators such as quality of education and health, access to health services, life expectancy and large differences in the quality of life within the region.The hypothesis proposed in this paper is that the coexistence of high income levels and inequalities in the region is not a result of insufficient resources but of a lack of commitment to development by the main regional stakeholders.