Silver mine swallowed up the 400-year-old city in the Andes

A silver mine that once enriched Spain expanded, swallowing up the old city and poisoning the children.

Cerro de Pasco city was "devoured" by a silver mine

66-year-old MP Gloria Ramos Prudencio has a modest appearance with a height of about 1.5 meters. According to National Geographic, she is burning the intention to relocate the entire city of Cerro de Pasco , Peru, with a population of 70,000 people. Located at 4,300m on Peru's barren original paint, this is one of the highest cities in the world.

Latin America's mining industry in the past decade has tripled its revenue, reaching $ 300 billion. This is also the industry that accounts for 1/6 of Peru's gross national product. Cerro de Pasco is a place to keep the entire history of the country's mining as well as the price that the country incurs. The mine here is destroying the 400-year-old city.

The open-pit mine run by a subsidiary of Volcan Compania Minera is a multi-level mountain mouth. 1.6 km long, 0.8 km wide and 0.4 km deep, this mine is gradually encroaching the city. An abandoned block, rusted steel roof and patchy facade, forming uninhabited land between the deep pools and the city. However, that barrier is not enough to protect people from poisons from mines, especially children. Cerro de Pasco is one of the worst areas of lead poisoning in the world.

The city of Cerro de Pasco was devastated by a mines of 402 meters deep.(Photo: Tomas Van Houtryve).

According to legend, four hundred years ago, the rocks around the campsite in Cerro de Pasco "melted into silver". For centuries, mines here have always enriched the Spanish royal family with silver mining filled with shipping boats. In 1820, this was the first city in Peru to be liberated from Spain. In the early 1900s, it was Peru's second largest city.

In 1903, the world's tallest 3,200km railway was completed and cut across the Andes. The Americans came here and the conglomerate Cerro de Pasco Corporation bought the mine.The mine is primarily for copper mining, but sometimes silver is still found. In the 1950s, copper gave way to zinc and lead , mainly for export to China.

In the mid-1950s, miners still dug ore through the old tunnel. After that, the mining company moved from the tunnel to open-cast mines within allowable limits to exploit more effectively.

Today, Cerro de Pasco lacks drinking water because lakes and rivers have turned orange due to waste from mines. Trucks that provide drinking water for this region cost 25 times more than Lima, Peru's capital. "My neighborhood only has 6 hours of water per week," Ramos said. This year, the court allowed the Volcan company to continue discharging mining waste into a southern city tank.

Along the western edge of the mine, huge amounts of waste from the mining of lead into Paragsha and Champamarca settlements and dust are everywhere.

Green nets cover the pile of waste near Champamarca area to reduce the amount of harmful dust entering homes and streets.(Photo: Tomas Van Houtryve).

Since 1996, the Peruvian Ministry of Health took samples of children 's lead blood here Cerro de Pasco twice a year. In 2007, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also participated. The results are always the same: More than half of the children tested have high levels of lead, possibly due to inhaling dust from the mine.

"This place is Chernobyl," said Paul Rodriguez, a doctor at the Paragsha community clinic. From the survey, he knew the children who entered his clinic were at risk of lead poisoning. He met 4 cases of children with blue streaks on the gums, signs of severe lead poisoning, but he could not conduct blood tests to diagnose.

Jorge Leoncio Murillo Nuñez, a Volcan spokesman, said the company complied with all Peruvian environmental laws and "implemented campaigns to inform people about cleaning and cleaning procedures to reduce minimal impact of pollution ".

Cecilia Beraún was born in Champamarca and lives with two sons in the school's warehouse. Cecilia's two sons, 7 years and 10 years old, have blood lead levels of 13.7 and 14.5 micrograms / dexilit, respectively. According to CDC, 5 micrograms / dexilit level is dangerous.

Cecilia's neighbor Alex, points to his 3-year-old son Yober."In March, its lead level was 18.9. She had a seizure three times, we picked up the New Year's Eve in the hospital. The hospital returned it because there was no cure. I was not born here and they were all healthy. Because of me, I wanted to sell this house and leave but nobody bought it , " Alex said.

Leydi Gonzales 9 years old (left) and 8-year-old Sonia have three times higher blood lead levels than the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.(Photo: Tomas Van Houtryve).

Although lead poisoning is low enough to cause joint pain, decreased learning ability, especially in children, making their IQ lower. At high levels, patients will have seizures, organ dysfunction and death.

In May 2012, the Peruvian Ministry of Health declared an environmental emergency at Cerro de Pasco. But a local health official explained there was not much money to resolve the situation.

In 2008, Gloria Ramos proposed a change, approved by the Peruvian legislature, to remove the entire city of Cerro de Pasco."The government allocates $ 2 million to study immigration, but the Minister of Finance and Mines ignored the meetings, so nothing progresses , " Ramos said.

Meanwhile, the Volcan spokesman said the town's relocation was not the company's responsibility."It is a government-related issue, along with local authorities and the city government , " Nuñez said.