HEAVY-METALS IN THE ATMOSPHERE COMING FROM A COPPER SMELTER IN CHILE

The Chilean mine El Teniente is the world's largest underground copper mine. It operates a giant smelter at Caletones (34-degrees 7' S, 70-d egrees 27' W) and we have found it is the major source of air contamin ation in the region. In August 1991 a special circumstance occurred du e to a labor strike, with total cessation of activities. A time series analysis of airborne particles collected at a site about 13 km from t he smelter was performed in a period including the strike. The PIXE me thod and other techniques were used to analyse fine (<2.5 mum) and coa rse (2.5-15 mum) particles on Nuclepore filters. S, Cu, Zn and As were quite enriched in normal working periods relative to the strike perio d. Elemental characterization of soil samples by radioactive source an alysis demonstrated that this group of elements did not come from airb orne soil dust. Cluster analyses of the interelement correlation matri ces, resulting froin PIXE data, showed one group (Si, K, Ca, Fe) with main origin in soil and another group (S, Cu, Zn, As) coming from the copper smelter.