As Bolivian Miners Die, Boys Are Left to Toil
This sad story in the New York Times is a very accurate account of the life of the young Bolivian miners working Cerro Rico in Potosí. There are virtually no old miners, as almost all of them die of silicosis before reaching the age of 45. The highest paid miners earn US$6 per day, but they take the greatest risks.
I can attest to the story’s accuracy, as Sandra and I spent a haunting hour and a half being led through the mines by a guide in September 1999. Some day soon, I will write up a longer story on the entire, amazing experience. For now, here are some of the highlights.
On the way up the hill, the guide took us to a small market. We rented cheap yellow plastic jackets and pants, thin plastic helmets, boots, and primitive lanterns for us and we purchased hand-rolled cigarettes, bags of coca leaves, waxed paper cylinders of dynamite, a bag of ammonium nitrate, fuses, and detonating caps for the miners. On the way into the mine and later inside, we offered cigarettes, coca, and dynamite fixings to the miners as tribute. Before entering the mine, the miners spend an hour or two chewing coca leaves with lime alkali to ward off hunger and numb their senses before entering the mines for 8 hours or more straight with no food.
We entered the mine through an opening just over 2 meters high and 1 meter wide. Within 10 meters, the tunnel had narrowed to the point that I had to hunch over (I’m 5′ 9″, or 1.75 meters tall) and my shoulders nearly brushed the walls. We had to squat and crawl duck style through many passages. We also had to press up against the wall and inch past several holes in the muddy path that went down about ten meters to another level where miners were working. When we heard rumbling noises in front of us, we had to quickly step aside as boys, typically 13-16 years old, ran past us pushing wheelbarrows full of freshly mined ore. Other workers lifted leather bags full of ore from lower levels by ropes and pulleys and dumped the ore into the wheelbarrows. The only non-human powered tools we saw were the trucks outside the mine.
In any mine or cave, crawling around through narrow passages is hard work. However, the entrance to this mine is at about 4550 meters, or 15,000 feet, of altitude. The combination of physical exertion and the fine dust floating through the extremely thin air left us literally gasping to breathe at times.
While we were in the mine, we heard occasional loud thumps, as dynamite was set off in the levels just below us. The only ventilation in the entire mine was provided by long plastic pipes with a diameter slightly larger than the palm of my hand. The pipes didn’t have fans attached to them and reached only into the upper levels of the mines.
And all this time Sandra and I were carrying these small tin lanterns that have calcium carbide in the bottom and water or some other fluid in the top. Somehow, this causes a flammable gas to be given off, which then escapes through a small hole that opens in a metal cone pointing forward. After being lit, the flame shoots forward a couple inches. Other than the occasional headlamp of a miner, this was our only source of light.
Remember the dynamite? Yep, I was also carrying the Bolivian and Argentinean dynamite, a bag of ammonium nitrate, fuses, and detonating caps in my other hand. About thirty minutes into the adventure, I was pretty happy to unload those on a miner and get them away from the open flames we were carrying.