The world's biggest underground copper mine El Teniente is located 85 km south of Santiago, near the city of Rancagua in Chile. It started as an industrial operation of El Teniente in 1905.
The town
Sewell was built on the hillside close to the mine, starting out as camps and facilities but later developing into an active settlement.
As the production increased, Sewell's urban structure featured also an increase in population and expansion in territory. The town was highly influenced by Americans, after all the company that initiated it all was American, bringing also the first workers of the mill site from there. The town got its official name in 1915 from a man called Barton Sewell, a New Yorkian executive of Braden Company, who - funnily enough - never visited it.
"First single workers, then families, formed a group that settled early to take their chances at the mine, but who had to stand the lack of comforts, housing, and basic services, which they had to arrange for themselves. Only to the extent that such conditions improved, did they have shops, education, medical service, and houses -'bunks' for married and single workers, and 'chalets' for employees- which formed different quarters, next to social clubs and recreational activities, such as the cinema and sports."
At first, the harsh Andean geography was not ideal for living. However, living in the colourless nature of the mountains inspired the inhabitants to bring colour into the town and thus, painting the houses in bright colours and planting flowers to bring liveliness into the area.
A century ago the area was a thriving city with schools, theaters, hospitals, social clubs and sports clubs, but nowadays it is mainly a ghost town and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The copper mine is still functioning but the workers don't live anymore in Sewell but in Rancagua.
"The museum of great mining of copper" is dedicated for the vintage machinery used back in the day, various kinds of antique equipment and life like it used to be in Sewell.
Lukas is studying the complicated production process of copper mining.
After this rich and nourishing lunch of the miners' mensa we were set to go 3 kilometres inside a mountain underground. Because of the strict safety regulations, we had to get geared up!
The security gear kit included safety shoes, a helmet with a lamp, glasses, a filtering mask, self-rescue kit, and an orange jacket.
Call me ignorant, but I had no clue you can drive with a bus inside a well lit mountain. The whole copper mining process seems interesting but rather complicated, and unfortunately that wasn't clarified well enough during the tour for me to tell you exactly how it happens.
The true and proud miners going for a break.
Tons of ground is exploded and crashed into smaller, tiny pieces, and brought here, where it is grounded into even smaller pieces, leaving the air heavy with fine dust. From this "sand" are the bits of copper then separated.
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We inherit nothing truly,
but what our actions make us worthy of.
George Chapman
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