sociedad qu mica y minera de chile s.a type sociedad an nima traded as bcs sqm a sqm b nyse sqm industry chemicals & mining founded june 11th 1968 headquarters santiago chile key people julio ponce chairman patricio de solminihac ceo products industrial chemical iodine lithium specialty plant nutrition revenue us 2.4 billion 2012 net income us 649.2 million 2012 number of employees 4 902 website www.sqm.com sociedad qu mica y minera de chile sqm is a chilean chemical company and a supplier of plant nutrients iodine lithium and industrial chemicals . sqm s natural resources and its main production facilities are located in the atacama desert between chile s i and ii regions . contents 1 history 2 maria elena tocopilla railway 3 references 4 external links history edit sqm was founded in 1968 to reorganize the chilean nitrate industry . in the course of the first phase the ownership was shared between the chilean state and the compa a nitratera anglo lautaro s.a. during the second phase the industry was nationalised and was thus fully owned by the chilean state . finally in 1983 the process of privatisation started and was successfully completed in 1988 . maria elena tocopilla railway edit barriles station ge 289a boxcab engines built in the 1920s some of the world s oldest locomotives still in commercial use ge u20c arriving at barriles to transport nitrates from its mines to the port sqm operates a 3 ft 6 in 1 067 mm gauge railway from mar a elena to tocopilla . the railway consists of two sections ; a diesel line to barriles parts of which were once electrified and an electrified line down to tocopilla which is very steep at around 4 % and includes a switchback locomotives are run around the train . all trains change locomotives at barriles . per year the railway transports 1.1 million tons of finished product to the port of tocopilla and 12 million tons of caliche ore from various mining sites to the pedro de valdivia plant . 1 in august 2015 unprecedented flash flooding caused numerous washouts on the electric portion of the railroad most notably the area around the switchback on the escarpment leading down to the port at tocopilla . as a result of this along with the closure of the pedro valdivia mine plant the railroad ceased all operations both electric and diesel in late november 2015 . all railroad staff were terminated and all railroad equipment is stored at tocopilla and maria elena awaiting possible sale or ultimately scrapping . the end of a historic railway . trucks are now hauling product from maria elena coya sur plants to the port . references edit annual report 2008 dead link external links edit official website spanish blog run by mario beroiza a sqm employee v t e ipsa companies of chile as of january 1 2015 aes gener guas andinas andina antarchile bci banco de chile banco santander chile banm dica besalco bupacl cap ccu cencosud cmpc coca cola embonor colb n concha y toro csav e cl embotelladora andina empresas copec endesa enersis entel falabella forus gasco grupo security iam ilc inversiones ita corpbanca latam airlines group parque arauco qui enco ripley salfacorp sigdo koppers sm chile sm saam sonda sqm v t e s & p latin america 40 companies as of june 30 2014 alfa ambev am rica m vil bradesco banco de chile banco do brasil banco santander chile bancolombia banorte bm & f bovespa brf buenaventura ccr cemex cemig cencosud cielo csn cpfl energia credicorp ecopetrol embraer empresas cmpc empresas copec endesa enersis femsa gerdau grupo elektra ita unibanco ita sa latam airlines group petrobras s.a.c.i. falabella sqm southern copper televisa ultrapar vale wal mart de mexico retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title sociedad qu mica y minera & oldid 739995134 categories companies listed on the new york stock exchangefertilizer companieschemical companies of chile1968 establishments in chilemining companies of chileelectric railways in chile3 ft 6 in gauge railways in chilehidden categories all articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from may 2016articles that mention track gauge 1067 mm navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschespa ol fran ais edit links this page was last modified on 18 september 2016 at 11 45 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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