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This article focuses on iron and steel in Chile. Symbol of Chile's modern steel industry, this mill represented the dreams, realistic planning, hard labor, and faith in the future, of both Chileans and their foreign backers. It was designed to develop steel from the raw materials available in Chile, thus saving valuable dollars previously expended to obtain it; with domestic steel, Chile could foresee not only independence from world supplies, but also the growth of a valuable export commodity. For one thing, as both world wars were to prove, the flow of these products to Chilean markets would be determined as world exigencies dictated. Too, Chile's ability to pay suffered drastically with the advent of synthetic-nitrate production, lowering the price of her natural nitrates, upon which she had been heavily dependent. A survey of the industry revealed that just prior to the Second World War, the average yearly consumption of steel in Chile approximated 141,000 tons. Of this amount, only 17,000 tons were domestically produced-this from a small steel mill opened in 1933 at Corral, and from foundries in Santiago and Talca.