Matt the miner in El Teniente

Chile Part 6

Greetings once again everyone! There’s so much to talk about, so I’m just gonna dive right into it. El Teniente is the largest underground copper mine in the world, and we spent an afternoon exploring its crevices and the adjacent abandoned mining town, Sewell. But beyond El Teniente’s touristic appeal, the experience felt very real, as each of us was required to dress exactly like a Chilean miner, carrying breathing masks and headlights. It was definitely a bit unnerving to go into the depths, knowing Chile’s seismic tendencies. Walking through the tunnels, it was eerily quiet and cool, and felt very isolated. One of everyone’s highlights of the tour was the Crusher, as I like to call it. It is a massive metal column that crushes all of the rock so that copper can be more easily extracted. It was crazy to watch! Boulders big and small were reduced to rubble in a matter of seconds. We also got a tour of the museum and the town, but my favorite part of the trip was lunch time, because I got to eat with the miners! I had forgot to pack a lunch, so me and a few other students went to the cafeteria and got some food. I don’t know what I expected, but it was hilarious to talk to them, because the two things that captured their attention was the fact that my friend (one of the other students eating with us) was Asian, and that they thought our other friend (a blonde girl) was really hot! What a conversation.

(I'm gonna try to keep my blogs shorter, and give good captions for each photo, so that I don't fall too far behind on everything that's happening.)

And here they are, the photos!

El Teniente from afar! 

Gina, Chelsea and I, ready to explore the mine. Looking back on these photos, I feel very authentic with the mustache.

An unknown miner walking into the abyss, poetic enough for Pablo Neruda...the mine was definitely not as aesthetically pleasing as his houses, but I bet he would have liked to explore El Teniente's crevices. 

Very industrial setting

The Crusher! It doesn't look very powerful, but it pulverized all of the rocks that fell into its grasp by constantly rotating its metal column.

Good ol' artsy photo of some other study abroad students walking towards us. Their headlights blend them into the mine...

Look closely...what do you see? A regular wall with weird lines on it, right? Well, those grooves are explosion marks where the miners strategically carve out sections of the wall using small amounts of dynamite. Imagine if they miscalculated the amount of such a powerful explosive...BOOM!

One of the coolest parts of the mine - this translucent pillar is a huge chunk of selenium that's over 5,000 years old! It was there when the miners were drilling and they decided to preserve it. So cool.  

Our guide showing us the mine - he was very excited to show everything to us! He had worked there for a long time, and retired from the work to take people on tours.

Close-up of the selenium - look at the petrified age!

Eureka! Just kidding. Fool's gold, but beautiful nonetheless.

Sewell, the abandoned mining town. The original miners lived there, in the 1800s, but now everyone just commutes from Rancagua. 

Our other guide showing us the entire copper-smelting process. It was funny because everyone was paying attention at the beginning, but by this point most people were zoning out or downright having separate conversations.

Beautiful rocks found in the surrounding area!

Yay rocks!

Huge piece of lapis lazuli, que lindo!

Getting to know the people of Sewell

Who's the crazy one in this photo??

Super cool, an old phone that functioned based on speech vibration, used by miners to communicate in the mine

The original miner outfit. Hmmm...what would happen if some rocks fell on this guy's head? Where's the safety regulations, Chile?

Futuristic miner suit...just kidding. An outfit used near the copper smelters.

Beautiful copper creations

Imagine getting your back scratched with those!

Interestingly, Sewell pioneered an anti-seismic architecture technique. Rather than erecting buildings with solely one foundation, they divided up the foundations, so that each vertical section of a building had its own support. That way, if a big earquake hit, the entire building could shake without collapsing. 

The slowly meandering valley in which El Teniente is situated, elegant in its own sandy way.



That's all for now, see you soon!