COPIAPO, a town of Chile, the capital of a department
of the same name in the province of Atacama, on a cognominal river, 50 miles from its mouth in the Pacific. Pop. about 5000. The neighbourhood is rich in minerals, as silver, copper, lead, iron, bismuth, cobalt, antimony, arsenic, and quicksilver. Its port, Caldera, at the mouth of the river, is now one of the stopping places for the Pacific Company's steamers. It has a good landing wharf and mole, with 24 feet water, at which vessels of 1200 tons may discharge cargo. In 1851 3,030,874 oz. of silver were exported. There is a railway between Copiapo and Caldera. The exports of metals from Copiapo for 1853 are estimated at no less than 10 millions of dollars; and no copper is sent under a yield of 25 per cent. from the ores. See an account of the mines of Copiapo in the Royal Geographical Society's Journal for 1853; also the article CHILE.