Why The Most Dangerous Silver Mine In The World Could Collapse | Risky Business

[Applause] this mountain in Bolivia used to hold the most silver in the world but over the last 500 years miners have dug out nearly every last bit indigenous people were forced into this work by Spanish colonizers in the 1500s Generations later it's the only job they know foreign these days the men mostly find zinc tin and lead but the non-stop mining has left this 15 000 foot Mountain porous and unstable if you look at aerial photos of the mountain you can see in what looks like giant holes in the tip of the mountain just from cave-ins the extinct volcano is infamously known as the mountain that eats men everything is so why do so many people risk their lives inside a mountain on the brink of collapse [Music] and why has so little change for them since colonial times [Music] at 13 000 feet Potosi is one of the highest cities on the planet Rico or Rich Mountain Towers over it [Music] Potosi the wealthiest place in Latin America back in the 16th century today it's one of the poorest Luciano lives at the base of the mountain with his wife in a one-room house there's no heat just electricity and a stove for cooking Luciano is semi-retired [Music] but to make ends meet he still mines once or twice a week about 40 percent of potosi's residents work in mining related jobs and nearly half of the population lives in extreme poverty more than three times the national average after 10 minutes the bus drops Luciano at the mine um this is he stocks up on alcohol and he buys coca leaves that give him energy then he buys sticks of dynamite to use later there are nearly 500 mines in here but many are abandoned [Music] after entering the mine Luciano first makes an offering to El Tio or the uncle Benito some historians believe the Spanish installed statues of the devil to scare the workers and instill discipline not again Legend has it that in 1544 an indigenous farmer called Diego valpa discovered silver here while looking for his lost llamas but it's the Spaniards who excavate it most of it when they conquered botosi in the 16th century European Engravings show how they forced more than 13 000 local indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans to work at the mines or the next 200 years more than 40 000 tons of silver were shipped to Europe across the Spanish Empire silver bars and coins we use this currency funding the Army and churches hundreds of years later Bolivia's State mining company komibol took over cero Rico and when the price of silver dropped drastically in the 1980s comeybol handed the mountain over to the indigenous people of the region currently about 16 000 miners work here the descendants of the same indigenous communities who toiled here centuries ago 65 miles of tunnels connect the mountain [Music] these rails were installed between the 16th and 19th centuries and miners still use Simple tools like a chisel and Hammer to extract ore [Music] OS today Luciano's chipping away at a vein of tin which is black in color s but to find bigger pieces he Mountains on a unexplored corners for that he needs Dynamite Luciano has to act fast since he's competing with other miners he moves nearly 200 feet away after setting off the dynamite let's collect the broken rocks into sacks that can weigh up to 90 pounds an elevator pulls the minerals up to where the mining carts are [Music] the fatality rate inside small-scale mines like these is 90 percent higher than an industrialized countries many miners contract silicosis a deadly lung disease caused by constant exposure to dust usually after 10 years of working inside the mine Luciano was hospitalized for over a year because of it is [Music] Luciano is 52 but most workers don't live past the age of 40. luckily he gets health insurance because he's part of one of the many cooperatives that control the minds each Co-op has anywhere from 50 to a thousand members and they're all indigenous miners pay mostly monthly dues and a one-time membership fee that can cost up to a thousand dollars members can also hire contractors to work on their behalf sometimes these are other members of the mining Cooperative but sometimes their day laborers and the whole group works together following for example one vein of zinc or complejo the mixed or thing the biggest benefit of cooperatives is that miners can keep whatever they find they could make a ton of money enough to put themselves or their kids through school your children will still inherit their membership in The Cooperative but instead of actually going underground and Mining themselves they only hire out day laborers to work on their behalf but daily Brewers aren't a part of cooperatives and don't get any benefits only a daily wage as little as 10 US dollars Luciano can make about 70 on a good day mining lead zinc or tin these days he rarely comes across silver most of it was exploited by 1825. but sometimes he can find traces of it in rocks see all the minerals are dumped into pits of the side of the mountain they're sorted and then sold to middlemen who are buyers for foreign companies trucks transported out of Bolivia which is landlocked to ports in neighboring Chile then the unrefined minerals are shipped overseas in 2021 Bolivia sold nearly 1.3 billion dollars worth of zinc its uses include cars batteries even paint and rubber most of it ends up in South Korea where it's processed at factories in addition to refining zinc they're also able to extract indium which is a mineral that is needed for a lot of touch screen and high-end technologies that is much more lucrative the unrefined zinc of oblivions export the bolivians do not receive any money for the NDM that they export it's often treated as a flaw thank you while mineral exports keep Bolivia afloat Decades of excavation have destabilized Cerro Rico now slowly sinking because of mining at the very top it's incredibly dangerous to be my the tip of the mountain because cave-ins are so increasingly common there but it's also one of the places where there is the most remaining mineral and so a lot of people are willing to take very high risks in 2014 a presidential decree was passed to stop excavation above the 14 000 foot mark but several cooperatives did not sign the agreement now some experts say ceruico is like a piece of Swiss cheese with many holes in it The Cooperative minors aren't coordinating where they're going to go what Bane they're following and so you can have a lot of structural problems that develop in the mountain when two miners are working quite close to one another both following separate veins but not leaving enough Rock there to hold up the tunnel for anyone else who comes after State mining company komibol is in charge of keeping the mountains structurally safe even though it doesn't own the mines is Gregorio socano Kuro is a technician for comibo today he's overseeing a project funded by the Bolivian government to fortify parts of the mountain the pumping cement into the beak to stabilize the shaky rocks is Gregorio wants serico to continue to be a source of Pride for bolivians but today it is an endangered world heritage site and the livelihoods of thousands of locals are at stake is [Music] every so often Luciano visits this local Cemetery today he's paying his respects to his late cousin Zacharias foreign historians estimate about 8 million miners have died here from illnesses or accidents since the 16th century some Graves here are nearly 200 years old while Luciano relies on lto for support in the mines here he prays to Jesus meanwhile Cerro Rico continues to loom over the city a source of Pride fear and sorrow for bolivians foreign [Music]

Channel: Insider News

Views: 859,616

Keywords: Insider, News

Id: mMgSQSpPafQ

Length: 16min 39sec (999 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 04 2023