Tuesday September 20, 2011
After arriving in Potosi last night and getting a good nights rest we decided to take a tour of a working mine at 'Cerro Rico'.
Potosi, at 4070 meters is a UNESCO world heritage city which was once one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the world due to the abundance of silver.
After putting on our protective gear consisting of jacket, overalls and safety hat we head over to the local street market to purchase gifts for the miners. These gifts consist of dynamite, coca leaves, ammonium nitrate, detonators and some form of drink that appears to be 96 proof sugar cane alcohol that smells like nail polish remover. Mine visits are not easy with narrow tunnels and low ceilings and crawling through the narrow dusty shafts at this high altitude is very taxing. The safety standards are appalling and wandering into these shafts exposes visitors to noxious chemicals and gases, including silica dust, arsenic gas, acetylene vapors as well as asbestos deposits. Most mines are run as co operatives and all work is done by hand with primitive tools and dynamite that they must purchase themselves. Due to lack of safety standards and personal protective equipment most miners succumb to silicosis pneumonia within ten to fifteen years of entering the mines. Chewing coca leaf to curb appetite and to keep content, miners enter the mine and begin their day by by first offering worship at the shrine of the miners god Tata Kaj chu, whom they hope will afford them protection in the harsh underground world. Deeper in the mine we find a devilish figure occupying a small niche along the passageway. Weekly, the miners give an offering of lighted cigarettes, coca leaves and alcohol to appease this underground devil as they believe that the minerals they are extracting belong to him. Last year seventeen miners died in this mine as a result of cave ins or environmental disease. Today is a no ride day and the afternoon is spent exploring this interesting city.
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Silvana with Coca leaves in her mouth and me with dynamite,
ammonium nitrate, fuse and detonation cord
just purchased on the open market as gifts for the miners. |
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| Entrance to the Maria Mine that we visited. |
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Dangerous vertical shafts without guardrails
exist throughout the long narrow tunnels |
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| Hand hoist is used to lower a bucket to a miner below |
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| Devilish like figure with offerings. Note the black on his face from lighted cigarettes |
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| Vertical shaft |
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| Miners hand load the dump trucks using wheel barrows |
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The gang readies to enter the shaft of the Maria Mine.
Note the primitive personal protective gear or should I say lack thereof. |
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