Buntar, officially the Republic of Buntar (Spanish: República de Buntar), is a southern country occupying a long, narrow strip of land between the Airies Mountains to the north and the Atlantis Ocean to the west, south and east. It borders San Marcos to the north, and the Dragon Passage in the far south. Buntar territory includes the Atlamtis islands of Juan Fernández, and Desventuradas. Buntar also claims about 1,250,000 square kilometres (480,000 sq mi) of the southern polar regions, although all claims are suspended under the Southern Ice Treaty.

The years of the 3024 Small War, and the 3025 Outworld Flu pandemic were as hard on Buntar’s people as anywhere, but they managed to keep their military and government intact by first siding with Sangria and San Isabel in the conflict, and then locked-down their border with San Marcos to keep out the hordes of refugees, shunting others to its allies. Its military soon took advantage during the 3026 riots by advancing deep into San Marcos territory, seizing industrial factories and various rich resources until it met the mysterious forces supporting Petrópolis, and was largely halted in their tracks by a series of tactical nuclear weapons that devastated its front-line military forces.

Today, the borders of Buntar are fairly secure, though wary of San Marcos chaos with its military keeping a close eye on their traditional rivals. The central government remains fairly stable, and its alliance with its wartime allies continues, largely through the aegis of The Commonwealth of Nations, which is aiming to bring stability to the planet as a whole. The nation’s economy has become increasingly dependent on the growing industry of Sangria, but still produces many valuable goods and resources for its own domestic economy.

Paraque National Reserve

Geography

Buntar’s northern desert contains great mineral wealth, principally copper and nitrates. The relatively small central area dominates in terms of population and agricultural resources, and is the cultural and political center from which Buntar expanded in the late 29th century when it incorporated its northern and southern regions. Southern Buntar is rich in forests and grazing lands, and features a string of volcanoes and lakes. The southern coast is a labyrinth of fjords, inlets, canals, twisting peninsulas, and islands.

Buntar also controls Sala y Gómez Island, the easternmost island of the South Atlantis, which it incorporated to its territory in 2896, and the Juan Fernández Islands, more than 600 kms from the mainland. Also controlled but only temporarily inhabited (by some local fishermen) are the small islands of San Ambrosio and San Felix. These islands are notable because they extend Buntar’s claim to territorial waters out from its coast into the Atlantis Ocean.

Many of the former towns and resource sites bordering with San Marcos, have fallen under the control of Buntar. The last few years have been spent in consolidating these locations into the greater nation, and are largely complete. Today, Buntar’s military constantly eyes the remaining steel and iron foundries of San Marcos, and many feel it is only a matter of time before another large-scale skirmish occurs wherein Buntar makes its move to seize these (and other) resources.

Codelco Mine

Economy

The Central Bank of Buntar in Santiago serves as the central bank for the country. The Buntar currency of the Balboa (0.6 Cs per 1.0 Balboa) has degraded against other currencies in the international markets, but remains strong enough to have value to traders, especially given its recent acquisitions among the border territories of San Marcos.

Buntar continues to have one of the most stable and prosperous economies on Terramatrix, leading the planet’s nations in human development, competitiveness, income per capita, globalization, economic freedom, and low perception of corruption. Buntar’s independent and efficient judicial system and prudent public finance management continues, and encourages international trade, but has increasingly fallen under the shadow of trade through both Sangria and Von Doom to supply its markets with resources and goods.

Copper mining makes up 20% of Buntar’s GDP and 60% of its exports. The Escondida company maintains the largest copper mine in the world, producing over 5% of global mineral sales. Codelco, the state mining firm, competes with several private ones, including Escondida, but overall refined copper is the primary export of the nation.

Agriculture

Agriculture in Buntar encompasses a wide range of different activities due to its particular geography, climate and geology and human factors. Historically agriculture is one of the bases of Buntar’s economy, and today, agriculture and its allied sectors like forestry and fishing accounts for only a small portion of its international trade (about 5%), though it continues to occupy a large portion of its workforce. Some major agriculture products of Buntar includes berries, grapes, apples, pears, onions, wheat, corn, oats, peaches, garlic, asparagus, beans, beef, poultry, wool, fish and timber. Wine is an important export, with many major wine labels operating across the central highland regions of the nation.

Due to its geographical isolation and location in the southern hemisphere, Buntar has quite different harvesting times from the Northern Hemisphere, and its wide range of agriculture conditions are considered Buntar’s main competitive advantage. However, Buntar’s mountainous landscape limits the extent and intensity of agriculture so that arable land corresponds to only 5% of its total territory, mostly concentrated in the central valley regions, and thus restricts its production largely to domestic consumption.

Industry

Copper mining represents more than 50% of the country’s exports and is the central pillar of its economy. Large copper reserves and a healthy respect for foreign and off-world investment in this industry, Buntar has become the copper mining capital of the world, producing much of its global output. Beverages (wine and fruit juices), wood products (cellulose and paper), machinery, and chemicals (rubber and plastic) are the next important industrial products, with increasing markets in Sangria, San Isabel and even San Marcos.

Various iron-mining sources were claimed by the national government as a result of its expansion into San Marcos territories, but these do little beyond fueling the national industries, though the Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional plant fell into government control, which produces automotive parts and some consumer electronics. This plant was sold to FAMAE and serves to support its national military. Several holdings of Duratex also fell into their hands, and presently serves various national industries.

Antofagasta PLC : Antofagasta PLC is a Buntar conglomerate that operates in various sectors of the economy. It controls Antofagasta Minerals, which is heavily involved in copper extraction from the area around its namesake community, though not actual refinement of its products. It also controls the railroad which stretches from its mines in Antofagasta across the Pelambras Mountains connecting Buntar with San Marcos. The company is known to work closely Twin Metals from the Davion Outback, and sells much of its ore to that company for export into the Federated Suns, ensuring a steady market for their products. The company also maintains mineral interests in other parts of the world to diversify its investments.

Asenav : Asenav is a Buntar ship building company, based in Santiago with its main shipyards located in the southern city of Valdivia, some 15 kms from the coast. The company was established in 2981 by the Steiner immigrant Eberhard Kossmann, and has since developed a reputation for building smaller commercial ocean-going vessels, such as ferries, fishing boats and tug boats for companies from around the world. While not particularly important, the loss of the Tandanor shipyards in Tragnar has raised the importance of this company on the international stage.

Bupa : Bupa is an international healthcare company, that provides private services to customers that can pay for the privilege. Based from Buntar, it maintains various subsidiaries across the world, providing its “Blue” occupational health services, home care facilities and hospitals. The company has risen in importance throughout the 3025 Outworld Flu pandemic, and its agents are often seen travelling into the San Marcos and Tragnar frontiers serving various warlords as medical professionals. The so-called “Blues” of Bupa have a very open acceptance in many frontier communities, and have a political influence far-reaching from their origins in Buntar. Many have even become popular as negotiators during international conflicts.

Canal 13 : Canal 13, also known as the “Universidad Católica de Buntar Televisión”, or simply El 13, is the second oldest television station in the world. Associated with the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Buntar, it produces highly religious programming that is appreciated by those with ties to the Catholic Church, and has a wide international following. It continues to have a definite political agenda, but is seen by many in the war-torn San Marcos and related border regions, as a voice of reason and unity in the face of chaotic warlord whims.

CAP : CAP Mineria is a multi-stage mining and steel production company, extracting iron ore from its holdings in northern Buntar, and then smelting it to produce flat and long steel for various industries. They also refine their iron into various steel products for use in domestic construction and infrastructure needs.

The company benefited from several gains during the 3026 attacks into San Marcos, and exploits several iron deposits along the new border with that nation, as well as improved equipment seized from Aperam that has improved its smelting facilities. The company cannot compete directly with San Marcos larger reserves and facilities, but domestically has a vital role in supporting many national industries, and with its rivals collapse, figures more and more in the world markets.

CMPC : Also known as Compañía Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones, CMPC is a Buntar pulp and paper company, being one of the biggest in the world. It is engaged in an integrated forest industry, which operates as a holding company through four business centers: Forestry, Pulp, Paper and Paper Products, and Tissue. Supplies, computer systems and other related administrative support, are centralized in an internal company, CMPC SA Shared Services.

This company has attempted to compete in the global markets, but despite having direct access to good shipping services through CSAV, has never been able to compete directly against the ready capability of Von Doom’s own pulp and paper company Brightwater. It does, however, dominate the domestic Buntar markets.

CODELCO : The “Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Buntar”, is a Buntar state-owned copper mining company, formed in 2984 from foreign-owned copper companies that were nationalized in 2979. It is currently the largest copper producing company in the world and produced more than 3200 tons of copper in 3015. It owns the world’s largest known copper reserves and resources, numbering some 300 million tons of ore reserves.

Codelco’s principal product is cathode copper. It is also one of the world’s largest molybdenum producers, producing 560 fine metric tons in 3015, and is a large producer of rhenium, of which Buntar is also the world’s largest producer. It produces small amounts of gold and silver from refinery anode slimes, the residue from electro-refining of its copper.

This company continues to fund large portions of the government’s expenditures, and is vital for its ability to provide revenue for oil imports and other “luxury” goods the nation cannot produce on its own.

Compañía de las Cervecerías Unidas : CCU is a food services company, producing both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, as well as operating in the food sector, primarily making confections. It is very popular and widely exported, and has become one of the largest food processors in the world, in the absence of several San Marcos and Tragnar companies that have ceased to exist.

Consolidated Foods Limited (CFL) : While there are a few small food-processing operations around Buntar, Consolidated Foods has quickly risen to prominence in the last few years by buying the larger manufacturing plants left behind with the Federated Suns withdrawal of interests in the world. Fruit, beef and sugar are all exported from Buntar through the aegis of Consolidated Foods and its processing plants. While most finds its way into the domestic markets and north into San Marcos, sizable quantities are exported via Von Doom’s DropPort for off-world sales into the Davion Outback. Few seem to remember that Consolidated Foods is a Davion mega-corporation, so long as the money and jobs remain good. CFL has become a globally important corporation, with an increasingly important position in the off-world trade of processed foods.

“ENAER Skytrain” DC-3 Condor

ENAER : Founded in 2938, “Empresa Nacional de Aeronáutica de Buntar”, or “Enaer”, is a military company in Buntar that produces aircraft. In 2992, the nation amalgamated its aircraft production under the single Enear banner, and began producing the DC-3D “Condor” STOL Air Transport, known as the “Skytrain” and their own light strike fighter, the T-35 Pillán. The company’s aircraft are considered mostly obsolete today, though the T-35 Pillán is still used as a national trainer. Today, the company provides maintenance services and produces spare parts for its existing air force, and has no plans to develop a new replacement for its aging national air force.

ENAMI : Empresa Nacional Minera del Buntar is a national company that exploits copper resources outside the national borders of Buntar. It maintains interests world-wide, though remains a close working partner in CODELCO’s national exploration efforts, as the company is owned by the national government. Its agents keep a low profile and usually have national interests in mind, rather than direct profit, making their investments seem odd to most other corporations.

Entel : Empresa Nacional de TELecomunicaciones, is the largest Buntar telecommunications company. To foreigners, Entel is best known for the 127 meter high Torre Entel (Entel Tower) that rises high above central Santiago and constitutes one of the city’s landmarks. They provide phone services and operate a microwave network that ties the country together, and are a nationally-owned corporation considered vital to the national interests. They tend to use whatever equipment they can acquire cheaply, so is not well-known for reliability, but still dominates the domestic market.

Various assets of Embratel fell into the Buntar government’s hands during the San Marcos occupation, but these were being managed by ComStar, and the transfer was congenial, with Comstar selling their interests to Entel for an undisclosed fee. Today, all current Embratel product lines and components have been re-worked and bear the Entel brand. Comstar did, however, retain control over the two Embratel fiber optics submarine cable systems; Unisur and Atlantis-2, the former east to Tragnar, and the latter west connecting to San Isabel, which are critical to planetary communications.

ESVAL : Compañía Electro-Siderúrgica e Industrial de Valdivia, or ESVAL, is an iron and steel industry located at Valdivia in Buntar. While it has not benefited from the war as well as its national rival CAP Mineria, the company still has a role to fill and is important to the domestic market. Rumors persist the company has ties to Tragnar’s VALE.

FalaBella : A multi-national chain of shopping malls, the stores are popular for their access to off-world goods. The company, though important domestically, has never been able to find interests outside its national borders.

“FAMAE MG-130” Infantry Support MG

FAMAE : Founded in 2819, Fábricas y Maestranzas del Ejército is a Buntar small arms manufacturer, producing various small arms for the national military and policia services. The company is also responsible for modifying military tanks and other vehicles that the military acquires, and engages in research for modernization of its armed forces.

Perhaps best known for its licensing of the HG-762 “Holy Grail” Assault Rifle and produces a fairly ubiquitous MG-130 Infantry Support MG for the national inventories. The company produces the Taurus GTA Carbine for its national policia forces, who appreciate the weapon, out of a new production facility in Petrópolis. The company also modernized the national inventories of its Light Support Equipment, before turning this over to the national La Polar company.

Recently, the company has begun producing the HIMART and its related Rocket Ray Missile System, as well as associated munitions for the national armory, and continues to try and export the vehicle and weapons system to its allies. In support of its various industries, it converted the captured Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional plant to better serve their military vehicles as a parts supplier, and electronic components developer.

Fondo Nacional de Salud : FONASA is the financial entity that controls all state funds dedicated towards health care services by the state. They collect, manage and distribute the funds collected by a 5% tax on all workers in the nation, and thus have a large interest in the government’s health care programs. They largely fund the efforts of Bupa in national health care, which has improved that company’s profile greatly. FONASA is considered an important part of the national agenda, and controls a sizable portion of the national government’s budget as a result, with a commensurate political control over its national agenda.

IANSA : Industria Azucarera Nacional is a nationally-owned sugar refining company, whose profits are fed directly back into its maintenance. Its direct competitor CNL has largely taken over the national industry, but the company continues to develop in the domestic markets, and has diversified into the bio-diesel production markets to maintain its profits.

La Polar : A chain of stores that offers various products, such as clothing, accessories, sporting goods, beauty products, gifts, infant products, electronics, furniture, furnishings, and household products, though its alpine cold-weather suits and camping supplies are its best selling features.

In recent years, the company has diversified into various survival equipment and supplies, and has found profits improve by supplying the national military with much of its basic Light Support Equipment, including taking over the militarization of this equipment from FAMAE. The company has expressed an interest in expanding into developing a modern line of combat armor for the military as well, but has held back on this development with the introduction of the Dumassas (Advanced) Infantry Field Kit by its allies.

Lider : A national chain of “hypermarkets”, or fast convenience stores, the Lider logo is fast becoming a sign of the improving economy of the nation. Its growth into most communities of the nation is used as political capital to mark the ability of the nation to provide luxury goods and services to its citizens.

Masisa : Once the second largest wood products producer after Duratex out of San Marcos, Masisa manufactures products that include; solid wood, particleboard, medium-density fibreboard (MDF) and oriented strand board (OSB), as well as interior doors, mouldings and millwork. The company continues to supply the domestic markets, but today exports its “luxury” products to only a few international markets.

The government netted several northern holdings during the 3028 invasion of San Marcos, and turned these assets over to Masisa for an undisclosed amount. Among these assets were a number of easily exploited work-camps, and a quantity of ancient LM4/C Lumberjacks.

Minera Escondida : Minera Escondida, which means “hidden” in Spanish, is a mining company that operates two open pit copper mines in the northern Atacama Desert, 170 km southeast of Antofagasta in northern Buntar. It is currently the highest producing copper mine in the world. Its 3015 production of 2900 tons of the metal was worth roughly 20,000,000 Cs, mainly as metal in concentrate, but some as cathode, and was 10% of the Terramatrix mineral output and 30% of Buntar’s mineral production. As expected, the Escondida mines have become critical to the Buntar economy.

The mines and its foundry have continued to maintain their market share, and are often considered one of the best mining companies in the world. The company has begun to import various modern equipment, including some Mining IndustrialMechs, including the RCL-1 Dig King, which have gone a long way towards improving their production quotas.

SalfaCorp : SalfaCorp maintains international offices, but primarily leads the industrial assembly and civil work market in Buntar. The company operates in two business units: engineering & construction, and property development. Engineering & Construction is engaged in civil works, industrial assembly, new businesses such as industrial support, maritime works, and tunnels. Property Development is engaged in the execution of all related activities from the design and coordination of projects including construction, marketing and post-production sales.

The company continues to prove vital to maintaining the nation’s infrastructure, but has few projects outside its domestic interests. Lately, it has been engaged in modernizing the nation’s railroads, and assimilating the nation’s recent conquests, including establishing perimeters around the nuclear danger zones on the former San Marcos border.

Sociedad Química y Minera : SQM is a Buntar chemical company and a supplier of plant nutrients, Iodine, lithium and other industrial chemicals. SQM’s natural resources and its main production facilities are located in the northern Atacama Desert, and closely associated with CODELCO. Nationalized for a time to reorganize the country’s nitrates production, the company is presently a publicly-traded corporation that extracts roughly 2200 tons of refined nitrates from the desert, and transports them via rail to port facilities at the Pedro de Valdivia plant near the capital. Its lithium, iodine and industrial chemicals are used around the world in various production services, making SQM a vital part of the world economy, and second only to Peregrine’s production levels.

Socovesa : Socovesa operates as a real estate and construction company in Buntar. The company develops civilian housing units, corporate buildings, malls, and corporate offices, among others. It has maintained its share of the market, but does not seem interested in expanding beyond its present efforts, and has no international interests.

SVR Producciones : A record label formed in 2986, SVR Producciones actively supports Terramatrix music artists and supports the export of planetary music off-world. It has a wide international following, and is considered the premier music label in the world.

Televisión Nacional de Buntar : TVN is Buntar’s national holo-vision network, that reaches clearly the vast majority of the citizens of Buntar, and most of its neighboring nations. The company is owned by the state, but not run by it, allowing TVN managers to operate in its own interests. TVN can be accessed via Channel 33 on the world-wide microwave network, and has a great deal of international visibility.

Vigatec : Vigatec is a manufacturing company that builds and markets mail-handling and packaging equipment. They also produce a line of control and security equipment, often used in other manufacturing processes. They also recycle various plastic cards popular in international banking institutions. The company is largely connected with CSAV, and is partly owned by that international shipping company.

Utilities Services

Enersis : Enersis was the largest privately-owned, multinational electric power corporation in the world, with operations in five countries; San Isabel, San Marcos, Sangria, Delancourt and Buntar. It currently holds direct and indirect participation in many electric power generation, transmission, and distribution corporations, and is fundamental to the industrial development of the nation.

Losses in electrical production facilities in its international markets in San Marcos, has forced them to largely abandon those facilities, though some of its personnel remain under contract by various warlords. Its efforts in Buntar have made the nation largely independent in its energy concerns, but it has slowly pulled back from its international interests, and concentrates exclusively on local development projects.

Inversiones Aguas Metropolitanas : A utility services conglomerate, Aguas controls all water purification and sewage treatment in the Buntar state. The company provides all water related services across the nation, and is vitally important to both civilian and industrial interests. It is privately owned.

During the 3028 invasion of San Marcos, the company took possession of the Duratex Deca Brand production plant, which manufactures various metal fittings in water treatment plants, which was the world’s largest plant of civilian sanitary fixtures. Sold to Augus for an undisclosed sum, the facilities have since become a “fixture” in the national water purification projects.

Transportation

CSAV : Compañía Sudamericana de Vapores is a Buntar shipping company that is currently the largest container shipping company in the world, and also one of the oldest ones, having been founded in 2880. The company is established in the port of Valparaiso. Its services include dry bulk, liquid bulk, and road network shipping of its cargoes, though container shipping is its specialty. It is considered a key factor in the trade network of the planet and its off-world shipping efforts, and features prominently in every seaport, airport and nation on Terramatrix.