Mejillones is a district and city in northern Chile, located 65 kilometers north of the city of Antofagasta, in the province and region of the same name. "Mejillones" is the plural of "mussel", Choromytilus chorus, a mollusk of the Mytilidae family known in Chile as "choro" and that is characterized by being a small bivalve that abounds along the coasts of northern Chile and that constituted one of the main foods of the local indigenous inhabitants. Mejillones was officially founded on December 24, 1862 when the Chilean Government granted land in the La Caleta sector to the bird guano company made up by Juan "Chango" López, Matías Torres, and Juan Garday.
Since its inception, Mejillones has been a district with industrial activity, the main activity being the extraction of guano, to later become a port for the transfer of nitrates that arrived by rail from the different nitrate works in the second region. Currently, the growth of Mejillones goes hand in hand with the industrial development of the second region, mainly with mining services companies.