Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Codelco Copper Mine


In northern Chile, Codelco (Corporación del Cobre del Chile) copper mine extracts the largest amount of copper in the world (roughly 2,000 tons of copper per day). Codelco supposedly marked the turning point in Che Guevera's motorcycle journey across Latin America. Che met a mine worker at Codelco who helped open his eyes, exposing him to a humanitarian side life, and altered the mentality of his trip away from a holiday adventure toward revolutionary rage.

Of course, once I heard how pivotal Codelco had been in Che Guevera´s life, I had to go see it for myself. So I hailed the local bus (they aren´t quite chicken buses yet in the Southern part of South America) and and proceeded to be the only Gringo getting dropped off at the copper mine in Calama.

Taking the tour of Codelco, I expected to be as surpised and as moved as Che once had. Unfortunately, I could only get a glance with a positive spin from the company guided tour. They showed us the prominent plaza with grand copper statues and the open air mine with the cleanest and easiest to extract metal of the company´s three mines. I am especially skeptical, knowing the mine workers probably aren't treated as well as the company boasts, but it is reassuring that Chile nationalized the mines, keeping the wealth from copper exports within the country. When I arrive in Bolivia in two months (I´m going back after Brazil), I plan to visit Potosí, a mine with tours given by real miners on their days off. I hear these tours through the arsenic filled taverns are unfiltered and truly moving. Potosí should be real look into the acutal lives and work of miners.


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