The mines (about 450 of them) are all located in the one big hill that dominates the town... Its a barren rocky triangular peak with no trees or plants that you can see, and its of course covered in the stuff of mining.
But, first things first.
We tourists get "kitted out" in some over-clothing, rubber boots, and a miners helmet and light.
That done, we head off to the street in town where the miners get their supplies.
Here we bought some small things as gifts for the miners whose work we would be interrupting... You know, some litre bottles of soft drink, half litre bottles of 95% proof alcohol, bags of coca leaves to chew and of course the all important dynamite and fuse...
These kinds of things are pretty restricted where I come from and you just cant get your hands on them without special permits... But, not here, Any ten year old kid can buy what we bought!
The explosives "kit" consisted of a slow burn 2min40sec fuse with a detonator attached, One stick of dynamite, and an equal volume of Nitrate fertiliser soaked in Diesel fuel.
Actually, this is exactly the same combination of stuff that we would used back on the farm when I was a kid (though with a larger volume of fertiliser) to blast tree stumps out of the paddocks :))
Anyway, this explosives package cost all of 20 Bolivianos which is about $3US!
The Coca leaves were loose in a plastic bag of maybe a litre in volume, and a small piece of "catalyst" that releases/activates the cocaine component (I believe its mostly mineral lime but this also had some anise and cinnamon mixed in for flavour.) We all tried some of the leaves and put a few in our mouth with the catalyst (you just chew and swallow the saliva... you dont swallow the leaves)... Within about one minute, my toung and inside cheek were numb!... very effective.
The miners dont eat while they are working, and its an eight to ten hour shift of hard work. The coca leaves have the effect of eliminating tiredness and hunger (Which by the way, is pretty much the same effect of the white powder version... So people can keep partying all night... or whatever )
OK, so now that we have everything, we drive up to the mine and first we have a tour of the processing plant... By the way, these days the mines do not produce that much silver... Its mostly Zinc, Tin, and Lead.
Its a shed or two with all sorts of belt driven machinery. Basically the raw ore from the mine is put into a rotary crusher where it is rolled with thousands of small steel balls. The output is ore that is 2mm sized at max. This is then mixed with water and then also with dilute mixtures of various chemicals in sequence. There seem to be about five or six steps and in each step the valuable minerals from the raw ore float up to the top of the "vat" and are skimmed off as foam. The foam is then washed out into settling tanks where a very fine dust of concentrated ore settles as mud.
The mud is dried and assayed for metal content and then sent to Europe for final pure metal extraction.
Then we go through the mine. This takes about two hours and we get to see the miners working. Its mostly cooperatives that do the mining now and they use very primitive methods, much as they have for hundreds of years. There is a very small electric train on one level, and there is an electric winch used by a big coop on some deeper layers. Likewise, the larger cooperatives will use pneumatic drills. But for the most part its all hand labour done by miners working in groups of two or three.
They push the rail cars around by hand. They load the ore with shovels. Drilling means using a 60cm long chisel and a 2kKg hand mallet and whacking away at it all day. A single miner can drill about 80cm of hole in a day... And thats enough for two small dynamite shots.
We wander around from here to there and see people doing different things. The miners dont mind the tourists interrupting though... They are used to it and its been going on since the mid eighties. Our guide always ensures that they get a gift from us of some sort, and as well as that, 15% of the tour fee that we paid goes straight to the miners.
The tunnels and shafts in the mine are really quite minimal. they are sized just big enough for the Peruvian miners (ie too small for some one of my stature to be comfortable at all) and the ore trolleys. The older "colonial" sections of the mine are walled in stone, but the more modern areas have wooden reinforcing only where needed. Its dusty and cramped and hot, and the air is very "acrid". The air quality is a result of the chemicals in the rock, the dynamite fumes, and the carbide lamps (still used by some miners)... Actually the smell pervades the whole town to some degree. The heat (say 35 -40 degC) in the mines is not from the earth, but rather from an exothermic reaction as water mixes with the chemicals in the rock.
The air in the mines is in fact the cause of most miners deaths... Sooner or later they get the "black lung" (silicosis) and start coughing blood... and then die! Apparently, most miners only work for about 20 years at maximum. There are very few who work beyond 35yo and none beyond 40yo
But they are proud of the work they do and its definitely in the culture of the town.
After a coupe of hours of that, and having had a go at the hand drilling and ore shovelling, we are all happy enough to come out into the light.
Then with the one remaining explosives kit, we see what its like when one goes off. There are five of us and the fuse is plenty long enough for every one to get a picture of themselves with the "bomb with the burning fuse"... Our guide then trots off 50m with it and comes back...
We wait...
... And when it goes off, It takes all of us a bit by surprise at the loudness and the force with which the pressure hits the chest.
But out in the open and unconfined, it does almost no damage that we can see to the ground... Not even a descent hole.
And thats it for the tour.
All I can say is that once again, I feel that Im very lucky that thats not the life I lead!
