Santa Laura is another nitrate town nearby.  As Humberstone, tt was setup in 1872. It did not go into production until 1921 when its refurbishment that had started in 1913 was completed and the Shanks system for leaching was introduced. Commercially, it was never as successful as Humberstone which also reflects in the number of inhabitants: At its peak, there were around 425 people living and working in Santa Laura. As Humberstone, it was acquired by COSATAN in 1934, when the price for saltpetre dropped, and the work went practically bankrupt. The end came with its shutdown in 1960,

Most of the living quarter is torn down and destroyed by the desert. The core of the plant, the leaching building and the stone mills, are however in a good shape (in Humberstone, they are completely lost).

 

Nearing Santa Laura

The Leaching Building

The Heart of the works it the leaching building. The caliche containing the nitrate were grounded, and then transported with conveyor belts up top of the leaching building. It would then mixed with water, and mother liquor brine, and indirectly heated up to 70 °C by steam (leaching). The saturated sodium nitrate solution would then be cleared by sedimentation in tanks. By allowing the solution to cool, the sodium precipitated. After the addition of a coagulant, sodium and nitrate solution could be separated. The nitrated solution was pumped into crystallisation pans, and allowed to dry at ambient temperature (see also “The rise and fall of the salitre (sodium nitrate) industry“).

 

 

Stone Mills

It does not require a lot of fantasy to envision nasty accidents that might have happened here …

Iodine Building

 

 

Power Plants (Electric and Pneumatic)

Santa Laura: The Electric Power Plant

 

Ruins of the Town