Hola from Potosi in Bolivia,
If 80% of all of the world’s silver came from one mine, the men and women who won the ore must have struck it rich from selling that precious metal.
In fact, the supply and demand equation would render it difficult to find sufficient candidates to enter the mine. Why would you risk it when you have already made your fortune?
It turns out that the miners – doing backbreaking work, risking the collapse of the shafts, breathing in unfiltered dust at all times – have been reaping a very low reward from their labours. In fact, if the rightful benefit from the ore had gone to the owners (Bolivia) in the first place, Bolivia would be a wealthy country today. Most of the silver is in other places, and most of the benefit went to Europe. And, most of the gain is still going to the companies, rather than to the toilers underground.
Cerro Rico in southern Bolivia has been mined continuously since silver, lead and zinc were discovered here in 1544. The Pre-Columbian Americans, themselves miners, gave the Spaniards the impression that there was a mountain full of silver in the interior. In the south, Argentina owes its name to the legend. The Rio de la Plata is also named after the prospect of silver in the hills.
After the discovery of silver on Cerro Rico, the extraction has been uninterrupted for nearly 500 years. Although most of the silver has gone to southern Europe, the imperial government built a mint in Potosi to produce all of the coinage for colonial Bolivia. The mint is now a museum, having stopped the silver coin production in 1991.
Today, the minerals are coming to an end. The mountain itself is sinking by .3 of a millimetre every minute. But still, it remains an active mine, with more than 200 adits on the hill. On any given day, there are said to be up to 20 000 miners underground, working in small teams of five or six. The companies lay the rail lines, provide the electricity inside the mine and buy the ore. The miners themselves are effectively sole traders.
As a result, the working conditions are decidedly primitive compared to unionised pits. Each miner provides their own tools, including the rubber bags used to haul the rock to the chute, including their own dynamite (!) and including the coca leaves that they are constantly chewing on during their shifts.
These men and women are winning the ore in the same way that it has been done for centuries. And, they are decidedly not the ones raking the spoils from the mineral in this mountain. The imperial looter is no longer the Spanish royal family. It’s a company who is very adept at offshoring the risk whilst capitalising on the value adding process.
Adios from Potosi in Bolivia
Gregorio
