El Teniente Copper Mine

The most recent Tufts-sponsored trip was to El Teniente, one of the world’s largest mines. We took into the mountains south of Santiago and stopped at the Teniente gate to get dressed and learn about safety. We wore hard hats, lights, goggles, breathing mechanisms, orange jackets, tool belts, and boots. Honestly, dressing up was one of my favorite parts of the day.

Our guide took us into the mine in a van and then we got out and went into the control center. The mine uses technology to drill in the tunnels that are not safe enough for people. There are computers with cameras that you can control with joysticks. The machinery and drills are also controlled by joysticks. We got to sick in the chairs and drill through rocks, cyber-style!
We also visited a cave with the biggest crystals I have ever seen and a tunnel with a rock crusher that was smashing boulders. After the tour we had lunch with some miners in the cafeteria underground. When we got out of the mine it was snowing and we had to walk around a ghost town and look at old houses, streets, etc. The mine was awesome but the ghost town was a little boring.