Inside Chile's Most Dangerous Copper Mines | The Earth's Riches | Spark

[Music] it is a material with which a lot of money is made two valuable just for coins it is durable it does not rust and it conduct swell the red gold has been indispensable to mankind for millennia [Music] [Music] the largest copper mine in the world is situated in the north of Chile in the Atacama Desert a hostile place where rain only falls every few years in Turkey Kamata people have been turning or into copper for more than 100 years nowhere else are there as many reserves as there are here a quarter of worldwide demand comes from the mind of chuquicamata every morning Vladimiro isabella has to go high up to get to his place of work his lorry is roughly the size of a family home and can carry up to 360 tons of all blood Amira has been working at the state-owned - OCA ssin Codelco for 17 years his father - mind or here I have always liked driving the biggest lorry in the world it is as if a childhood dream has come true I always wanted to work for this factory my lorry is really very big it is 840 tons that we drive with here the smaller vehicles have to have a flag on their roof so that they are not run down by the giant lorries by accident for safety reasons traffic is on the left in the mind experience showed that drivers have a better overview that way [Music] this morning Vladimiro transports worthless rock it contains too little copper and is therefore taken to a slag heap the drivers have to maneuver their lorries close to the abyss in order to dispose of the overburden there is always a fear of slipping off [Music] of course one has to be very very careful pay attention these lorries are very very dangerous because of their weight and volume if nothing else in winter the lorries are iced over and so are the paths in the pit and there is a risk that these large lorries start to slip because of their waited on you have to learn to control them in order to get home in one piece [Music] the foundry is the final stop in the processing of copper here the prepared or is smelted several times every smelting process increases the concentration of the metal at the end what remains is almost pure copper 99.98% kwan-jin chammiya is there for the casting Kuan is responsible for two furnaces and twenty workers they regularly take samples to check the copper content here it is 70% right now the foundry is a labyrinth of halls and staircases during the smelting procedure the furnaces suck in oxygen a whistling sound the noise they make is deafening and there are red-hot Quan chinchilla is glad when he has some work to do in this quiet air condition control room every so often all furnaces are monitored by computer and cameras the workers received the instructions by radio although safety regulations are very strict one has experienced some bad accidents it was during the night shift just when a colleague was about to repair part of a current transformer something went wrong the machine caught fire it happened near the control box the worker was not able to get out he had no chance and he simply burned to death we saw it through the screen we saw how he desperately tried to get out threw himself on the floor but she didn't manage to get out we saw it and couldn't do anything because there was no access to that area the game with fires difficult to control in the last year's the state-owned mining corporation Codelco has done a lot to change their workers awareness the macho mini era who believe that only weaklings wear gas masks and safety shoes no longer exists protective clothing is compulsory today if you are caught without it more than three times you are cautioned if you do not keep to the regulations after that you get fired [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in chuquicamata the ore has a relatively high copper content at 1.5% it thus contains almost twice as much as the mines of the competition in other countries that makes mining enormous li lucrative here despite the difficult conditions the ore is mined in the world's largest artificial hole it is four kilometres long two kilometers wide and one kilometer deep everyday somewhere there is a blast in the mine that way the copper rich rock is loosened and can be loaded transportation with a lorry from the mine takes 40 minutes around 100 lorries work during each shift Vladimir OHS final trip before he finishes work the drivers have a lot of power and a strong trade union it has managed to achieve that a 2000 euros per month they earn the best money in the mind this often causes the other colleagues to be envious Vladimiro delivers his final load to the so called concentration with the yours first of all mechanically processed concentration as the name suggests here concentrated coppers produced but the journey there is long across endless conveyor belts and through numerous mills at first the ore is roughly crushed sorted and washed every day this plant processes 180,000 tons of rock which eventually yield 2,500 tons of pure copper [Music] only a few people still work here everything is monitored by computer only the grinding gears of the mills which are made from simple iron balls and iron bars have to be exchanged and maintained from time to time here the ore is ground relatively finely into a grain mud every two or three weeks the mills are completely taken apart and newly fitted this procedure takes an entire day this is where the brain of the concentration is everything is interlinked and the men in the control room can check at any time whether there's enough rock on the conveyor belts or whether there's a shortage of water somewhere they are told this in the voice of Tanya the former trainee which is played back by computer previously it was a man's voice but no one had listened to it it is a woman's voice and that makes our soul happy a woman that our place of work where there are only men that relaxes us tanya is the soul of everything that is the truth and you can't live without a soul it is like a garden without flowers like an abandoned garden do you understand the chemical processing is done in the same building and these large tanks tensides are added to the boulders then the mixture is stirred well until it is nice and foamy that way that cop arises in the boulders separate the copper content is now already at up to 35 percent concentrated enough for the smeltery chuquicamata that is the mind but also a towns specifically for the workers until recently almost everyone lived right next to the mine for more than 100 years this has been a town exclusively for Minnie arrows when Vladimiro leaves work for home he does not have far to go but this proximity also has disadvantages the waste gases from the smeltery and the dusts pollute the air a few years ago Chile signed contracts to comply with international environmental norms since then it has become clear that the inhabitants of chuquicamata will have to be relocated by 2007 of the original 12,000 people only 8000 still live here and the flood Amira's family too is already sitting on packed suitcases bloody Mero and his wife Susanna have taken their grandchildren to live with them their own children have left town to go to university bloody Mira and Susana are very reluctant to move they have spent their entire lives in cooky the pet name for that Susana is preparing her grandchildren for the move will go to school directly on the bus yes well that will be a nice responsibility for you you know you have to get on and off exactly in the right place if the bus doesn't let you out in the right place in Kalama then look for chooki they will miss the calm their friends the familiar says Vlade who deco contaminates us won't we sleep when you sleep you don't really notice the pollution during the day there is more wind and so the smoke disperses when I Drive my lorry at night and look for our houses the mountains which are very close by I don't see them that's how much dust there is the danger comes with age the majority of the workers who taya moved to the harbour to the south but they don't have much life left the pan Gina from Codelco usually dies after three to four years because when they go they go with silicosis they leave contaminated the end of an era for Vladimir as family for the town of chuquicamata the state-owned mining group Codelco is promoting health and safety for their workers but they care like that not purely out of brotherly love there are tangible financial reasons the group needs new areas once the workers have gone their houses will get buried under boulders and overburden the hunger for copper is in sachabieqi dust is man's biggest enemy here in order to fight it one needs water but waters gas in one of the driest deserts on earth this torrential stream is coming from the chemical processing of the copper mud highly poisonous filthy water that gets diverted into the desert for reprocessing it's an economy measure the maca del Caribe processes its wastewater the less money they need to spend on fresh water from the mountains really a fun day to travel with other people davit Montesinos is responsible for their always being plenty of water in the mine otherwise production comes to a standstill it is part of his daily routine to monitor the pumping and distribution stations a new cover is being built for the canal because the pressures sometimes so high that the corrosive flood brothers the water is very contaminated when it leaves the mind for example with arsenic acids lots of chemicals can't be used for anything you can drink it and the assets can damage your skin get some momentum fancier alligator boy and Danielle appeal it is essential for us not to be wasteful with the water to know how to be economical with it the better we do that the better it is not just for us but also for our children Vanessa no soldiers no love me no [Music] every day deletes covers 60 to 70 kilometers on his control drives he makes sure that the LEDs are tight and he talks to the workers that it loves his job in the desert [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] everybody thinks here life stops here green nature stops but the desert has its own magic too it gives you something that inspires you being alone here is a very spiritual experience that's all or no mementos yet Tomoya spirit world amazi reprocessing this simple the water pours across the decline into the desert sits in the basin for a few days so that the harmful chemical can sink to the bottom then it is pumped back into the mind you cannot drink it but it is sufficient for the mind it used to be different worse much worse in the 1930s the Americans ran the Chilean mines they did not care about the environment this road leads from the mine further north down to the coast across 100 kilometres the wastewater went the same way more than 50 years the dirty copper rich wanted for through the canals untreated corrosive reeking it was the cheapest solution it was not necessary to reprocess the water because there was more fresh water coming down from the Andes to this plant the water finished up in the sea and although the discharge was stopped at the beginning of the 90s the coast is still contaminated the sea had stored the harmful chemicals and now it gradually sets them free again there's hardly any life left over a stretch of 7 kilometers chili nyan biologists have been investigating the effects of the catastrophe for a few years a checkpoint 20 kilometers north of the contaminated area here there's still plenty of algae the biologists from Universidad católica and Santiago de Chile take out spores and algae in order to plant them in the contaminated places professor Juan Moreno believes that it will be decades before the coast recovers with this type or organism the copper directly effects the science the cells are destroyed when the amount of copper exceeds a certain level the plants are unable to regenerate so that in the end they die básicamente song daniel animal cellular the algae are replanted in the contaminated areas of the coast they are fixed to the rocks using drills some algae have already survived an entire year scientists are investigating whether they also reproduce this is the second experiment the first one took place one year ago compared to those at the control places where they grow naturally you can see that they don't look good after two months they don't grow they pull in their arms they don't stick to the rock a few kilometers further on the little port of Generale until the early 80s the wastewater from the mine ran right across the beach into the sea there are still traces of it today the beach outside that little town is green from the oxidized copper a gigantic reservoir for copper mud and other highly poisonous substances such as arsenic it would cost the state-owned mining company millions to clean it up instead they built a playground and a beach promenade to calm down the angry residents the strong cause the wind blows the fine dust from the effluents lunch into the town the environmental officer and the chief press officer of Cadell they are trying to qualify the danger not so intoxicant the copper remains are not poisonous to the people the real danger is the dust that spreads through the air the tiny particles that it contains hugely impair the quality of the air it is true that the fine dust damages people's lungs only after peanut jet was overthrown at the end of the 80s that the residents dare protest against this environmental catastrophe last summer the Chilean President swam here to show that the water is not poisonous [Music] we essentially have two options on the one hand we can try and cover up the sand so that the dust doesn't swirl up the other option is wide-ranging artificial plantings that could provide protection the mining company has created another job this man combats the dust with a water hose [Applause] it was a hire you prolly my cost to him holy cow it is ultimately always about who will pay I don't believe that Codelco does enough to remedy the damages given the extent of the damages Codelco certainly doesn't do enough in a few years only the graveyard will be evidence that people once lived in chuquicamata [Music] Vladimiro like many miners is very Christian he often takes his son to visit Virgin Mary's statues and graveyards chuquicamata will disappear but it is a good thing that the graveyard will stay a lot is linked to it emotions family it is important that nobody should be forced to unbury his friend and bury him again somewhere else that would happen if the mind came here - that would be terrible Vladimir of son has already left the town towards the sea to study he cannot imagine going back to chuquicamata nor can he imagine the hard work in the mind because my father's work is very exhausting especially the night shifts is difficult to recover from it I don't want to drive his lorry I want to study in order to be able to do a job that I enjoy in the early evening the lorries leave the mine now is the time for the daily blastings for security reasons everybody has to leave the valley when in 2015 the opencast reserves are exhausted they will continue mining underground [Music] [Music] [Music] the mine never sleeps 24 hours a day the lorries carry the or away from the pit day at night the rock is milled and copper is smelted [Music] 400 kilometers south of the Atacama Desert there is another kuda coal mine here the coppers mind underground when the men drive in they stay in the mountain for eight hours they called the transport vehicle cage because they sit so close together they go down three kilometers and are not returned until the evening the L income mountain is at the edge of the little town El Salvador those who are late have to take the goods train mine worker hime is hurrying everybody calls hi met Chuck Norris because he used to enter every fistfight a true old styled mini era there are plenty of trains that he can take three crews drive the ore from the mountain all day long hello Chuck Norris how are you yeah take that late as always again I'm just in time my friend el salvador is in the mountains at an altitude of almost two and a half thousand meters copper has been mined here for only 50 years the American corporate group had to move the mind to this place because the reserves were exhausted elsewhere that is where the name El Salvador comes from salvation for 3,000 mine workers and their families [Music] underground darkness dust confinement are the natural enemies of engine-driver Hector working in the mine is hard and difficult you are enslaved we have to work a lot a lot of Earth many stones and we are badly paid whether I like the work or not is not an issue you have to do it for your family you get used to it you get silicosis or you don't but I still show up every day yeah while Chuck is on his way to work Hector drives on to load up fresh or it is particularly dusty in near that shoot the rock masses dropped from the top floors down into the depth the entire mountain is divided up into individual floors like a multi-story car park the trains pick up their cargo at the lowest level and drive it to the stone mills and the so called concentration [Music] chuck has done everything in the mind before at the moment he works on stabilizing the tunnels he collects a welding device for this task from the material distribution place in over 30 years chuck has worked in many different mines in Chile basically we earn a little money here for shortening our lives with all this dust in the environment you ruin your health in the long run the mountain is full of holes like Swiss cheese five levels with more than 1000 kilometres of roads and 100 kilometers of rails sometimes even Chuck is surprised that the whole thing stands up [Applause] [Music] Chuck is welding the sheet pile walls for a new railroad tunnel if this is not done properly the result can be in one of the shafts the blasting was calculated wrong so that was a fire the ceiling collapsed one has to be very careful when stabilizing levels and the vaults so that the ceilings definitely won't fall down the water column is the area [Music] [Applause] this sticker is called scoop the transports rock to the truth nobody must be where the scoop works the digger races through the narrow tunnels and darkness and at high speed [Applause] [Music] the load of this scoop is intended for the lower levels of the mind the little water fountain that is there to combat the all-pervading dust in the mind is almost touching one floor down the work goes on the hammer begins to crush the lumps that are just a little too big [Music] once the hammer has finished its job the stones moved to the lowest level or they are loaded onto trains and transported out of the mountain [Music] as long as that freshly crushed lumps are not completely dusted over the copper shines [Music] the miners also spend their lunch break underground the way to the top is far too long there would be no time for a break they bring their food from home and warm it up in the water quench the canteen is just about big enough for a dozen workers but chuck norris and his mates love spending time together the jokes and teases make them forget their hard work in the mountain at least for a little while [Applause] [Music] really they are all my friends but especially those who are useful right now they are my best friends some may not like me but I don't care about that he is also a journalist Florentino he regularly changes his name and that helps him so that he doesn't have that many children he is called little box he's a good guy he has a lot of money in his little box there are blastings underground to wherever the troop works the area is prohibited there are four people on each vehicle to close off the area and the others prepare the explosive charges [Music] underground explosions are dangerous and have to be calculated precisely or the stability of the mountain of holes is at risk carefully the men prepare the charges the miners are most scared of electrical sparks that are able to trigger explosions prematurely the drill prepares the holes for the blastings it is always several per rock [Applause] the blasting material is shock resistant and it is ignited electrically we of course have to see if it can get dangerous for example if the stones are a porous on top they can fall off at any time we check that beforehand so that nothing happens fire fire the men from the blasting troop shout nobody must be left in the passageways all work stops every day a dozen of such blastings take place in the mountainous labyrinths the tunnels are driven deeper and deeper and the passageways are connected with each other [Music] end of shift waiting for the Train time to tell the story of the day [Music] [Applause] [Music] and time to sing songs about love suffering and desire in the wild life of the miners [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] although they are not black like coal miners they are happy to wash off the fine layer of mine dust [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] machan chuquicamata this morning Vladimiro is off work to finish the work on his new house he and his family are moving to the town of Kalama 20 kilometers away this will be their new home Kalama is booming and has grown to 150,000 inhabitants in the last few years that is a lot for a desert town the mining company Codelco is building a new district in the desert for its workers houses like out of a construction set this is the streets in which Vladimir and his family will live in the future the house is not like the one they had in chuquicamata fitted carpets smooth walls everything new and modern the rooms are smaller but there are more of them the mining company financed the building work the workers are getting a low-interest credit in total the three-bedroom house only costs $25,000 vladimir ax is able to pay off the debts slowly out of his wages I'm sorry to leave to keep it has been so many years my grandchildren were born there well I am happy because unlike in the house in Kuki I do all these things in my own house nobody can send me into the street nobody can say that used to be your house and consider me that it is rented out tomorrow or say you have to go elsewhere your contract has run out you have to go I have now got a house that to me the initial skepticism has died down Vladimir OHS family has got to like their new home even though Susana is sure that she will not be able to sleep properly here during the first few weeks Coppa the red gold in the end that leaves the mines of the Atacama Desert pressed to a sheet several thousand tons tied up into handy packages they polish the almost pure copper one last time so that the expensive precious metal on its way to China or Europe does not oxidize and turn green [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] it is only 100 kilometres to the sea but the train takes six hours the steep mountain drives forced engineers in the 1920s to accomplish great feats Bend after Bend it winds its way towards the Pacific [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Spark

Views: 627,036

Rating: 4.722826 out of 5

Keywords: Spark, Science, Technology, Engineering, science documentary, science photography, science explained, science experiment, chilean miners, how do they mine copper, copper miners, copper mining, copper mining documentary, mining documentary 2019, coal mining documentary, coal mining, the most dangerous job on earth, classic history, documentary, mining, coal, smelting, rockhounding, geology, mineralogy, bronze, ore, extract, electrochemistry, copper age, metal, metallurgy

Id: 1J_hAa0ehnw

Length: 42min 51sec (2571 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 02 2019

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