"Our part of the world has specialized in losing ever since those remote times when Renaissance Europeans ventured across the ocean and buried their teeth in the throats of the Indian civilizations." 2
May Chile finally break this curse.
When on 5 August, I read that a bunch of miners had been trapped by rock falls 700 meters down in a mine in the Atacama Desert in Chile. I didn’t give much of a chance for their lives. They would certainly increase the deadly statistics of the medium-sized Chilean mining industry in particular, and that of world mining in general. Ever since nitrate was mined in the 19th century, the Atacama Desert has been a graveyard for miners.
On 22 August, this statistic became a jubilant headline grabbing world attention: “Estamos bien en el refugio los 33”. If translation from Spanish was needed at the time, now every one understands these words. The world discovered the beaming face of the newly elected president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera waving the short message written on a wrinkled and greasy piece of paper. The miners, all 33 of them were still alive after 17 days spent scurrying in the bowels of the San José mine. Thanks to a camera lowered down the 15 cm-wide drill hole, the world was soon able to see their emaciated faces on television. The drill which finally located the men had been directed by Macarena Valdés a 31 year-old female topographer.
I got a jolt. I became riveted to the story. Everyday I was “mining” the news to get updated on the rescue efforts, the progress made on the surface and down below. I started an email correspondence with geologist friends for clarifications and opinion. I became familiar with the miners, their respective background and skills. I learned with admiration how they were organizing themselves to keep their sanity and physical strength. Their grit and resourcefulness were mind-blowing. They were participating in their own rescue efforts. I knew the names and specs of the battery of drills used, the nationality of the drill teams, and the names of the key members of the rescue team. The team soon became a small well-organized army. I knew what went down the palomas those 15 cm wide plastic tubes which like an umbilical cord kept the miners alive in good health and in contact with the surface.
My mood swung according to the rescue progress and setbacks. For the following two months, until the 13 October astounding rescue, I was glued to the TV and the Internet to spot any new tidbits in the rescue effort. I even joined Laurence Golborne’s fan club. He is the good looking and articulate mining minister. I missed few of his English briefings. He became the poster boy for the crafty communications operation run by the Chilean government.
In the process, I got acquainted with the shameful record of the San José mine during its 100-year life, as well as its mining potential, its copper and gold reserves, and its topography.
As a passionate geologist looking for minerals, namely copper, tin, lead zinc and gold ores, I seldom worked with miners. Geologists of my generation liked fresh air and worked on the surface, and they used a compass for orientation. In the 70s and 80s, GPS was still a military device!
In my entire active career as a geologist, I may have worked only two months down in a mine, and I hated every single day. Compass is useless down the mine and I felt totally disorientated in the galleries. I had the impression of being useless, having lost my professional bearing. At the beginning, I was totally clueless, unable to identify ores, the shiny stuff which contains metals. The helmet light distorted everything. I was wearing a boiler suit (in Brazil, it is called a macacão, mono in Spanish or monkey. Odd analogy!). The person who created the first monkey suits didn’t have women in mind. When nature called, I had to find a secluded gallery to strip out of my macacão in the dark. A real production! I often got lost in the process, unable to return to my ore sampling spot.
In the 70s, a woman working in a mine was an unwelcome oddity. In many Latin American countries, women were not even allowed into a mine, as miners believed that they brought bad luck. I had great respect for the miners who treated me respectfully and didn’t openly laugh at me when I got lost.
Conversely, drilling was my thing. I started my career as a drilling geologist. I was expected to select suitable drilling targets, and ensure that the drillers got the job done. I logged kilometers of drill cores and cuttings. The rescue of the 33 miners was a miracle of drilling and of drillers’ ingenuity. Macarena’s achievement is compelling.
The Atacama Desert has long fascinated me. Coming from Australia in September 1972, Chile was the first Latin American country I visited. As soon as I landed in Santiago, I headed for the desert. Atacama is regarded as the driest desert on earth, but its mineral riches have attracted adventurers, prospectors, gold diggers, free loaders and me. I have twice visited Atacama.
In the 70s, I fantasized over the salitreras, these ghost towns spewed over the desert. There may be as many as 170 abandoned sodium nitrate (saltpeter) mines in this region. This was used for fertilizer and gunpowder. Atacama still has the largest deposit of sodium nitrate, but since synthetic saltpeter was invented, it is no longer mined. Mining stopped during WW II. I visited the ghost town of Humberstone which has since been named a World Heritage site. It was a desolate place littered with machinery and its buildings were slowly being invaded by sand. The feeling of desolation was amplified by the somber mood of Chile. It was the final year of the Salvador Allende’s presidency, and the country was barely functioning.
The harsh desert is a land of plundering, drama and death. Atacama has been the stage of the kind of predatory mining Galeano refers to in his famous book3. Now copper and gold have taken over saltpeter; they have brought new wealth but also many mining tragedies. Atacama became a killing field during the early years of the Pinochet’s dictatorship. Hundreds of Communist miners and leftwing activists were rounded up by troops, never to be seen again.
On 13 October the 33rd miner to be hoisted from the mine was the miners’ leader, the foreman Luiz Urzua. Urzua is a self-made man whose Communist father and step-father were murdered during the dictatorship. It was momentous to watch him give a bear hug to Piñera, a self-made billionaire and the first elected right wing president since the end of the military dictatorship. I cried when these two guys spoke to each other and sang (badly) the Chilean national anthem.
I also cried when for the first time the torpedo-shaped capsule appeared in the miners’ tunnel and rescuer Manuel Gonzales took charge of the operation. Chile has brilliantly rescued 33 miners, a feat no country has managed before. In Latin America Chile is in a league of its own, ahead of the other countries in government efficiency and political stability. It is a remarkable achievement after the dark decades of Pinochet’s brutal regime.
The success story happened because all the stakeholders were accountable and never gave up. The assembled rescue team was resolute in its goal, it used the best expertise worldwide, it didn’t leave a stone unturned (perfect image in this case!) and nothing was left to chance (even if some people acknowledge divine help!). The mission’s logistic went like clockwork without a notable glitch. It will be a tough act to follow and a challenge for many mining countries. Not only the survival skill of the miners kept them alive during the 17 hellish days, but when located they actively and competently participated in their own rescue. Their grit, solidarity, discipline and resourcefulness were commendable and led to the upbeat ending.
From day one, President Piñera orchestrated the rescue. He applied his businessman savvy, and won. The odds were against him. He took a huge gamble and was rewarded. As expected, criticisms were uttered; in some circles winners are disliked. I think his joy was genuine, and why not bask in glory? It is also good for Chile and its people who had something to celebrate after the devastating earthquake. Was the country reborn? Probably not, but it had acquired new credentials.
The 33 miners’ heroic rescue has rewritten many textbooks and added a new chapter to Eduardo Galeano’s book. It has given me the opportunity to cry with pride and joy.
Beatrice Labonne. Rio de Janeiro, 20 October, 2010.
1) The 33 Chilean miners and I.
2) From “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent” by Eduardo Galeano, 1971.
3) Hugo Chavez of Venezuela gave the book to Barack Obama at a 2009 regional summit.
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