Illegal mining in Chile

Illegal mining is a concern in Chile. As of 2025 it was considered to be on the rise but still far below the levels of neighbouring countries like Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. In 2024 there were 20 formal complaints of illegal mining before the National Geology and Mining Service. There is as of 2025 no large-scale illegal mining in Chile. Illegal mining is greatly overrepresented relative to legal mining in deadly accidents in Chile. The fact that most small-scale mining in Chile focus on copper, which means handling large volumes difficult to smuggle or hide has been thought to be a contributing factor to the low levels of illegal mining.

The term chucullero is sometimes used pejoratively for artisan miners known as pirquineros who carry out illegal mining, but this is not always the case as chucullero also refers more generally to any pirquinero specialized in precious metals, mostly gold.

Some communes where illegal mining have been reported in the 2020s are: Hijuelas in Valparaíso Region, Illapel in Coquimbo Region and Copiapó and Huasco in Atacama Region. The placer deposits of some areas of difficult access in Patagonia are also subject to sporadic small-scale illegal gold mining.

Llanos de Challe National Park had an incident of illegal mining in 2021.