| Potosi
is a famous mining town. It is the largest city of its size at this altitude
(4,100 meters/13,450 Feet) in the world. Potosi is also the highest city in the world.
Why
would this remote & desolate location - over 14,500 feet high, in the
middle of nowhere be placed upon the
World Heritage Place
of Historic Places?
“Cerro
Rico” or the rich mountain was the reason.
The population of Potosi in El or Alto Peru
(now Bolivia) swelled to over 150,000 souls during the 16th
, 17th and 18th centuries
because the mountain contained the largest silver find in the world of all
times. This made it one
of the largest population centers in the world during the Age of
Discovery. Most of them
were native slaves entering the mines as children – never to see the
light of day again….
Even
today the miners work as they did three centuries ago for only an amount
equal to $14.00 U.S. a week! They
make 17 to 18 trips a day pushing carts of ore weighing 1 to two tons by
hand over two to four kilometers into the mountain.
Why
did we go here? Because
this place marks the beginning of the odyssey of many of our silver coins
– we are recovering from beneath the seas.
It is only fitting that we journey to this place so that we can
accurately document and relay the story and journey to where we are
presently recovering them.
"Casa de la Moneda"
(the Mint House).
This is what Captain Dom had been waiting the whole trip to see. This was the
second mint in Potosí. It was
built during the second half of the 18th century to control minting
activities right where the silver was extracted. The Museo de la Casa de
la Moneda has exhibits on silver and gold coining as well as colonial
paintings.
Pictures demonstrate how the coins were struck with a planchet.
a rock formation with silver running through it.
"Suiting up" for the mines.
We first stopped at the miners supply store and learned how to make, and light
dynamite. We then had to buy cocoa leaves, cigarettes, coca-cola and
pure-grain alcohol as gifts for the miners and for Tito (the devils
brother - uncle George).
So with our rubber boots on and our miners pants, jackets and helmets on
we stopped to learn how to crew the coca leaves - which miners use to keep
them alert. It was actually quite gross. You chew a bunch of these leaves
(like cows would chew their cud), then you would bite off a small piece of
a salt bar. It is here where the activation of the coca leaf, your saliva
and the salt gives you the "cocaine effect".
However, I did not feel anything but numb lips like Novocain. Oh well . .
. when in Potosi, do like the natives do . . .
Silver Mountain
We saw the how they would take the ore and refine and separate the
minerals so to get to the real silver. Later we saw how silver in the
mountain runs in veins along the sides of the walls.
At the smelter the rock taken from the
mines needs to be weighed and analyzed for quantities of silver, tin, zinc
and lead. They first crush quantities of the stone and keep dividing if by
ten until they have a quantity that can be divided in half, one portion
for the head miner and one for the smelter and both are sent to the laboratory
to be analyzed for types of minerals. There was also a piece of equipment
used to extract the minerals. Chemicals including cyanide are used and the
workers need to work on a rotation basis because of exposure to the
poisonous gases. After the
separation, the mixture goes through further filtering using water and
special equipment that shakes the mixture until the lighter minerals come
to the top. For silver they use a chemical that sticks to the silver and
bubbles up - they then scoop it off the top of the liquid.
Going into the mines, it was cool and very dark. You could stand and
walk one minute, then have to crouch down and even crawl if you were so tall
to get through the tunnels. We had just 4 of us in our tour with our guide.
We were all wearing the old fashion type of helmets that shot flames. you
have have to keep your ears open all the time for fast hand pushed carts
filled with ore. They are unstoppable weighing 2 tons when filled and a
ton empty. Since you could only see a few feet in front or behind
you, you would have to quickly find a recess on the wall to press yourself up against so the miners could shoot past you. There were times
when it was quite comical to see us all scrambling first forward
then backward to find a spot to stand.
Much of the digging is still done by hand, as
dynamite is expensive for them. The average daily wage for a miner is just
U.S. $4.50/day. The miners work 8 straight hours without stopping for lunch.
The cocoa leaves serve to curb their appetite and give them energy to do
their work. The average life expectancy of a miner here is 45 years.
After about an hour in the mountain we came to the temple of 'Uncle
George" or Tito. The devils brother.
You've got to click on this one!
This, was creepy! The miners created this 7 foot
sitting, statue out of clay and mud and decorated him with coca leaves and
confetti type papers. We had to pay homage to him with our coca leaves and
grain alcohol. Place a little of both in his hands and on various other
parts of his body. This
would symbolize that they would be safe, wealthy and fertile. Since they were in the underworld
they believed in worshiping the devil and all his relatives.
|
The Virgin of the Mountain -
symbolism in regard to the Great Silver Mine Mountain
We enter into the
narrow,
deep, dark mine.
2 small men push 2 TON carts
filled with Silver Ore
The many minerals found in this mountain. Nowadays low-grade silver, tin, zinc, lead, antimony and
wolfram
are what’s being mined.
Green Phosphorous drips from the
tunnel's ceiling
Our guide is gearing us up with
dynamite, Coca Cola, Coca leaves and grain alcohol for offerings to the
miners and to "Tito",
Here Captain Dom talks with local
miners in the mine about his discovery of Potosi silver from beneath this
Potosi mountain.
Note: the flame burning on his helmet.
You could only see 5 feet in front of yourself with this type of equipment.
A silver coin recovered from
the sea and silver ore excavated from this mountain of which
the coin came from originally - in Potosi, Peru
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