The most important historiographical aspects of the settlement and foundation of Antofagasta in 1868 are analyzed as a relevant Latin American mining territory to observe the economic phenomenon of extractivism and its impact on regional settlement. Through a documentary analysis the main social, political, and economic aspects related to the beginnings of the saltpeter industry in the Atacama Desert between 1860 and 1879 are identified. Itischarac-terized among other issues, bythe extensive diplomatic dispute between Bolivia and Chile for the sovereignty of that territory, in the prolegomena of the Pacific War. The results of the study identified the main parallels between the historical developmentof the Latin American mining sector to be able to describe the continuity of extractive practices that started in the colonial period in Latin America, which led mining camps to become mining cities in deserted zones.