Ferronor
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Ferronor (Empresa de Transporte Ferroviario S.A.) is a Chilean railway company operating on the old Red Norte (northern network) of Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado, which was privatised in 1997. Since 2004 the primary shareholder is APCO.
Currently Ferronor owns a railway network of about 2,300 kilometres (1,400 mi), consisting of a 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) metre gauge main line between La Calera and Iquique and various spur lines. However, about 60% of the railway network are currently unused due to damage like landslides, washouts and rail theft. Ferronor mostly transports mining supplies and products.
Ferronor transports 7,000,000 tonnes of iron ore concentrate, 900,000 tonnes of salt, 290,000 tonnes of copper concentrate, 530,000 tonnes of sulfuric acid, 230,000 tonnes of copper cathodes and 35,000 tonnes of fuel annually. Other railway operators transport 2,200,000 tonnes of freight on Ferronor lines annually.
The Diego de Almagro division connects Potrerillos (a now abandoned town and mine in the Andes at 2,800 metres (9,200 ft), only the smelter is still in use) with Llanta (filtration plant and workshops) and Diego de Almagro, where the line connects to the Longitudinal Norte, and continues to Chañaral and the harbor at Barquito. The Longitudinal Norte is still used from Diego de Almagro northward to connect Mina Franke.
The line was built starting 1916 by the Andes Copper Mining Company to connect the Potrerillos copper mine and smelter with Pueblo Hundido (now called Diego de Almagro), where it connected to the state railway network, which continued to Chañaral. At Chañaral, a branch was built to connect the harbor at Barquito with the state railway network. Production at the mine started 10 years later. The railway was subsequently used to transport supplies to Potrerillos and refined copper to the harbor at Barquito.
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Wikipedia