Photo Gallery

The Peruvian town of Cerro de Pasco, situated at an altitude of 4,350 metres and now home to 30,000 inhabitants, has been an important mining centre since colonial times. Gold, silver, copper and zinc are partly mined in mines situated 5,000 metres above sea level. The coal, however, comes from the deeply incised Goyallarisquisga Canyon, which is nonetheless the highest coal mine on earth. - Book: Picture 172 - Peru - 1969

The Morococha mine produces silver, zinc, copper and lead. It is located at 4,540 m in the central Andes, near the Ticlio Pass, which connects Lima with the eastern parts of the country. - 1969

Workers’ settlement at the Ricas mine in the department of Huancavelica, Peru. The ore from this mine contains silver, lead, zinc and copper, as well as various minerals that are separated during smelting. - Book: Picture 173 - Peru - 1976

Miners in front of the entrance to the Ricas mine in the department of Huancavelica, Peru. - Book: Picture 174 - Peru - 1976

The Toquepala mine in the Tacna region is one of the five largest copper mines in the world in terms of reserves. It is operated by Southern Copper Corporation (a subsidiary of Grupo México). The railway line shown in the picture forms part of the private industrial rail network known as the Ferrocarril Ilo-Toquepala-Cuajone. The line was built around 1959–1960 to transport the mined copper concentrate directly from the deep open-cast mine over the Andean passes to the smelter and the export port at Ilo. – Peru – 1976

The photograph shows the mine railway within the Toquepala copper mine in Peru. The mines’ entire rail network comprises intricate hairpin bends along the mining terraces and a tunnel system over 27 kilometres long, designed to cope with the extreme differences in altitude in the mountainous region. Although transport within the vast pit is now mainly carried out using gigantic dump trucks (haul trucks), the railway link to the coast remains the main logistical artery of the mining operation. Peru – 1977

Three prospectors in the Bolivian Cordillera Real at an altitude of 4,640 metres. Together, these three treasure hunters mine easily accessible deposits of tungsten, tin and gold; they call their method ‘makipura’. - Book: Picture 175 - Bolivia - 1976

The ‘Cerro Rico’, the ‘rich mountain’ of Potosí in Bolivia. Potosí, with its silver mines, was the source of the wealth of the colonial Viceroyalty of Peru. The coat of arms of the city, whose economic importance came to an end in the late 18th century, bore the proud motto: ‘I am the rich Potosí, treasury of the world, king of the mountains; to kings I serve as pasture.’ - Book: Picture 170 - Bolivia - 1976

A mining town in the department of Potosí in Bolivia. In the foreground is a massive embankment that serves as a dam to contain fine-grained processing residues (known as tailings or slurry). These waste products are generated during the extraction of metals from ore. In the background lies the densely built-up mining town. The extreme proximity of industrial waste dumps to residential areas is typical of historic mining regions in the Bolivian Andes and poses significant environmental and safety risks to local residents. – Bolivia – 1976