Potosi - Dynamite anyone?

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Potosi owns a couple of superlatives. It’s the world’s highest city at 4070m, was once the riches city in South America and once had more inhabitants than London or Paris. That Potosi was founded in 1545 is thanks to the Cerro Rico “Rich Mountain” which contained huge amounts of Silver. The Silver content of the ore mined exceeded up to 70 percent. Today the content of metals is a maximum of 30 percent and always a mixture of different metals. Millions of Indian labourers were forced to work in the mines and many of them died young due to appealing conditions and mercury poisoning (Mercury was used to separate the silver from the stone.)
The good silver ore depleted sometime around 1800 which led to a steady decline of the city. Today there are still over 12000 people working in 200 mines and the working conditions and tools haven’t changed a lot since the early days.

The two reasons to come to Potosi are the grand buildings which were build during the rich phase and to visit working mines. The mine tours start off with the fitting of “protective” gear which mainly protects your cloths from getting dirty. After that we visited the miners market which is a bunch of shops selling everything the miner’s heart longs for. Apart from the usual like pickaxes, helmets, torches and the lot you can also freely buy dynamite. Yep everyone and everything can buy it from a small kid to a miner to a very excited tourist. A complete set of a stick of dynamite, the detonator, a fuse and some other chemical which makes for a bigger bang cost you USD 2. Part of the mines tour is to set off some dynamite so you can imagine that I bought a stick. Another reason to come to the miners market is to buy gifts for the poor devils which have to work in the mines. It is a kind of entry fee and consists normally of dynamite, soft drinks and Coca leaves.
After we finished shopping we went to a processing plant which crushes the ore the miners mine and extracts the Silver, Led and Zinc that is contained in the rock. The finished product is a powder which is exported to Europe, Chine and America for further processing. The whole of South America apparently doesn’t have a smelter to process this locally. The process is quite labour intensive as instead of having a machine which feeds the crusher you have a couple of guys with shovels and wheelbarrows. It is also not really environmentally friendly as the water used is full of chemicals which are used to separate the metals and the stone. The water including the chemicals and rest of the rock is then put into the nearest river.
After the processing plant comes the interesting part the mine. The mine my tour went to is a working mine in which normally a couple of hundred miners work. The day I was there was very quiet and in total there were maybe 20 miners working. This was due a festival the day before in which most of the 12000 miners got absolutely drunk on 95 percent alcohol. This happens once a year for some reason which I forgot. The mine itself is probably a nightmare to any safety inspector. Most of the tunnels are not secured which is not really necessary as the rock is very hard but in some places we saw nearly broken support beams… The width and height of the tunnel changes all the time from a gringo friendly 2 m height and width down to 40cm. In some places I had to go on hand and knees to get through the sections. There are many levels to the mine and we went to two of them. The temperature in the tunnels is from freezing but good air (some) to 30 plus degrees and lots of dust (most). No surprise that the life expectancy of the miners is around 45 years as they develop many respiratory related illnesses. To make things worse the miners work with mostly manual tools. Jackhammers are only used for very rich parts which are very seldom these days. To extract the material they first create a hole for the dynamite. This is done with a chisel and a hammer and can take anywhere between 1 and 9 hours for one hole. Then the dynamite does its work and the rock is transported outside in small sacks on the back of the miners. Some of the miners start this kind of work as young as 10 years which is illegal but no one seems to control it. A working day for a miner can be anything from 8 to 20 hours. This is not forced onto them by an evil corporation instead they decide themselves how long they work. Most mines are cooperation’s in which a bunch of miners work together and split the money between them. This earns them an average of 800 Boliviano´s (around USD100) per month. As there is not much else work around most people born in Potosi end up in one of the mines.
I just want to thank my parents that they didn’t bring me into this world in Potosi.

During a working day the miners only chew Coca leaves and drink sugary soft drinks as food and the mixture of dust and chemicals in the air causes bad stomachs.

Girls: Think about the poor miners before you ask for more silver jewellery…

Next stop the Uyuni Salt flats

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Photos

If you wonder why there is smoke around the fuse
It was lit a couple of seconds ago. The bag I’m holding contains the contents of one stick of dynamite and the detonator. The whole thing blew up a couple of seconds later

A miner “drilling” a hole for the dynamite.
Sometimes they work in complete darkness to safe the lamp batteries

Inside the ore processing plant.
It was hot, loud and not the safest place on earth

The devil is the protector of the miners
Here the devil is not as evil as in the Christian mythology. He is jus the God that rules the mountains and everything below. He is offered coca leaves, alcohol and cigarettes. He is also pretty well endowed

The gifts for the miners
Coca leaves and dynamite

Comments

[Beth]

guilt trip
Now I feel really bad! I'm wearing a silver ring, earrings, watch and necklace today!! Sorry miner guys