Silver Mines Potosi and Blowing Stuff Up

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Potosi lays claim to being the highest city in the world at an altitude of around 4000m, but in itself is not an overly impressive town, although at one stage in history when the mining industry was booming it was larger than both Paris and New York.  Which brings me to the reason for going to Potosi, to enter a still active mine.  A tour of the mine is not really for the faint hearted as the conditions down there are quite hellish and the life expectancy of a local mine worker is something like 35 years.  Jo being a bit of a claustrophobe quite wisely decided against the tour.

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The mining industry in Potosi does not have a great track record they have been mining the same mountain Cerro Rico for around 500 years and have lost something like 8 million indigenous indian lives in that period.  The guide was saying that an american team of mining engineers came once to check the condition of the mountain and said that structurally the mountain could only sustain mining activity for another 7 years and that was 14 years ago!  All info you don't want to hear before entering one of several hundred mines in the mountain.

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Before hitting the actual mine we first headed for the miners market where you buy gifts for the miners which are typically dynamite and soft drink and maybe some 94% strength alcohol if you go near the weekend.  I actually suggested to the guide that maybe the life expectancy of the miners is 35 not because they accidentally breath in all kinds of noxious fumes and dust in the mine but because they intentionally swill the equivalent of metho every friday after work,he said that could have something to do with it.  Our guide was actually quite funny as an ex miner he really new his stuff and spent 10 minutes explaining to us which was the best dynamite out of all those on display.  I opted for the top shelf stuff at a whopping 17 bolivianos (About $3) for a stick of dynamite, a bag of ammonium nitrate and a three minute fuse.....in fact it was so damn cheap I got one for the miners and one for myself.

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Next stop was the processing plants where they separate the metals from the ore, conditions here are not much better than the actual mines, they use all sorts of nasty shit to separate out the metals and I think only recently stopped using mercury as a key ingredient.  True to Bolivia they don't actually recirculate any of the nasty refining chemicals and pump them straight into the river which results in a wasteland for hundreds if not thousands of km's.

Next stop was the actual mine, we spent two of the longest hours of my life down in that rabbit warren crawling through tiny little tunnels to the fourth level, fortunately i've lost a few kg's in the past few months or reckon I will still be wedged down there somewhere.   Fourth level is about 30 or 40 metres down and completely oppressive, hot as hell with dust everywhere and some funky coloured crystals hanging from the roof as well as a lot of white powdery stuff that looked suspiciously like asbestos.... think i might have lowered my life expectancy by a couple of years for just being down there for two hours.

Getting to the surface again was an immense relief  especially as a few of the people in the group were getting a bit freaked out by the end.  Anyway not something I would do again but definitely an experience and as an added bonus got to blow up my own personal stash of dynamite at the end which was good for a laugh.