Silver mining
Coal mining operations were chiefly owned by Chilean businessmen contrasting with the heavy foreign involvement seen in silver mining and later also in salpeter and copper mining. Silver mining and coal mining were somewhat linked by Matías Cousiño a silver mining magnate who expanded into the coal business. Cousiño begun mining operations in Lota in 1852 a move that rapidly transformed the town, from being a sparsely populated frontier zone in the mid-19th century, into a large industrial hub that attracted immigrants from all over Chile well into the 20th century.