Pulperia was the name given to company stores and dining facilities in parts of South America, notably in the industries that extracted sodium nitrate from caliche deposits between 1850 and 1930 in Northern Chile in the current regions of Tarapaca and Antofagasta. The term was used in the Spanish colonial period in South America. The pulperia system remained in use by the copper mining industry for a limited time up until the 1990s. However, pulperias have since been eradicated in all the mining industries of Chile.