The Silver Mines of Potosi
In the Andes mountains of Bolivia is a mountain so rich in silver it is called simply ‘Rich mountain’. Bolivian Indians have been mining silver here since the Inca days, before the Spanish invaded South America.
We start with a 12-hour bus journey from the capital city of La Paz to Potosi. We go overnight to avoid a hot dusty trip and to get some sleep and not waste daytime traveling on our busy schedule. Our hopes of a little sleep are dashed once we get underway as we see the state of the highway. Marked with potholes and canyons that are natural wonders in their own right, the modern ‘highway’ is of course, dirt. A big improvement on the old road an Indian informs us!
Arriving in Potosi, we see for the first time ‘rico mountain’, as it towers over this small town. For centuries the purpose of Potosi has revolved around the mountain and its rich mines. It rules the cultural and religious activities of the local people. Beautiful jewellry and ornaments are produced here and were traded throughout the Inca empire from Chile to Ecuador. However when the Spanish arrived in the 1500’s, the nature of the mining became more exploitive.
We check into a ‘residencial’ that has been recommended to us, and sure enough the family that runs it is very friendly. However we have just missed breakfast which was so popular this morning they appear to have run out of food! They can manage a cup of tea though, for a bedraggled bunch of hungry backpackers. Then, for some absurd reason, we decide we still have time to make the morning tour of the mines and save some more time! Instead of going straight to bed , as I have in mind, we dash off to find a guide for our excursion.
Our first choice is Raul Brulio, who we have read about in our trusty guide book. He appears to know what he is talking about, so we part with our ten dollars each and climb aboard his battered truck. So with no breakfast, and little or no sleep, we set off for extreme physical exertion at high altitude. And some people call me clever.
There are two stops on the way to the mine. The first is at Raul’s house to drop off our gear and to be fitted with up with wellington boots, heavy raincoats and hardhats. Suitably attired we get back into the truck and continue further up the mountain to the miners market..
On sale here are the necessities for a day in the mines – coarse miners cigarettes, boots, cocoa leaves and dynamite. Raul tells us to buy gifts for the miners who allow us into their tunnels to view the process. The miners are so poor they cannot afford the basic tools of their trade, so tourists bring it in as presents. I suspect this is a bit of a scam, but as everything is so cheap we can afford a few cents worth of dynamite for the Indian workers. We purchase some presents, as well as our own supply of cocoa leaves to chew underground.
Our guide takes us all the way up the mountain where the tour starts. It turns out that Raul is an ex-miner lucky enough to get out of the tunnels and into the tourist business. The miners we will be visiting are his friends that he led underground for 8 years.
Raul tells us that the miners earn about US$1.50 a day for a 24 hour shift. Sometimes they are inside for 27 hours at a time for 2 months on end. They work in ‘quadrillos’ of 8 to 10 men with one group leader. The leader has about 10 years experience and can earn up to $4 a day. Men start working in the mines at the age of 13 to help the family income. The average miner is married by 18, has 3 to 7 children, has a working life of 30 years and will be dead by 50.
We are given a demonstration of the big bang one stick of dynamite makes out in the open, away from the Llama herds. It is impressive on the hillside but must be horrible in the confines of the tunnels. We are shown the lines of workers sitting up against a wall in their quadrillos, chewing cocoa leaves for 20 minutes before they descend. The leaves help to filter out the noxious gases from the oxides, suppress hunger and to give energy. We started our own chewing at the dynamite demonstration.
At the entrance to the mine we see dark stains all over the rock and the wooden roof supports. This is Llama blood. Three times a year a llama is sacrificed to the mountain spirit, El Tio, to ensure good fortune in the mine.
At this point I start to feel lightheaded. My teeth and lips are green and I can’t help but swallow bits of the huge wad of coca leaves in my cheek- which I am not supposed to do. I’d like to think that the buzz is from the cocoa, which is after all, the ingredient for cocaine. However it is more likely to be the lack of food, sleep and oxygen. The rarefied air surrounds us at well above 4,000 metres.
We descend into the mine where it is cold and damp. This mountain is a labyrinth of 10,000 galleries, the oldest of which dates back to Inca times. Six thousand men work here now , and at its peak production in the Spanish era, there were 13,000. Walking 2.5 km’s into the mountain, Raul shows us all sorts of rock formations, natural caverns and mineral deposits. Copper, tin oxides, and lead are all present alongside the silver.
A good silver vein is 70% pure and always runs north-south. The miners cut their shafts east-west to cut across the vein. It takes them 6 hours using a metal rod and a hammer to pound a one-meter hole in the rock so the dynamite can be inserted. The area is cleared for blasting and then the rock is collected, pounded some more, and sorted to extract the silver.
Silver is currently selling for US $25 per kilo, the equivalent of two weeks work for the miners. We give them our presents and leave them to it, to eke a living in this formidable environment.
Further down the shaft we come to a strange altar. A likeness of the mountain spirit, El Tio, sits in a shrine littered with Marlboro cigarettes (no rough miners ciggies for this god ), and surrounded by empty liquor bottles and cocoa leaves. He guards the mountain rather than the workers and must be appeased. In addition to the thrice-yearly llama sacrifice, every Friday the miners gather together to bring him gifts and sit and drink.
This goes on at over 500 sites in the mountain! Unfortunately though, there are often fatalities after these binges as miners stumbling home miss their footing and fall into disused shafts. More Llama blood is spilled when an accident occurs, the miners believing that their god is angry, rather than recognizing the fact that getting drunk in such an environment is highly dangerous.
Where once these friendly natives would work the silver into precious objects, now they work for someone else. The sixty owners of this mine reportedly earn US$50,000 per month each whilst the workers earn $30 in the same period.
That afternoon we went back to our hostel and collapsed. I was struck by the attitude of the natives. In this horribly exploitive industry, that generations of their families have been born to, the Bolivian Indians remain happy. They smile and joke and enjoy the life they have. They live and work on ‘rich mountain’, and as long as El Tio smiles, they smile too.