Concepción and el Chiflón del Diablo
20 September 2006
(Concepción and Lota Photos)

Why did I go to Concepción in the first place? I had heard that there was an underground coal mine in a town just to the south that ran guided tours billed as a "safari bajo tierra". I know what my former Australian colleagues must be thinking, "Are you nuts?" My work in Australia involved spending great lengths of time in coal mines, and they were not always pleasant visits. Call me crazy, but it has been a year and a half since I last went underground and so I was curious.

This part of the Chilean coast is known as the "Costa del Carbón" as it is the main coal mining region of Chile. Lota, 40km south of Concepción, was once a big coal mining town. Despite its coastal setting, Lota is pretty grim. To get from the bus stop on Lota's main street down to the mine you walk through a particularly poor area. An area where I felt uncomfortably conspicuous. But, the walk is a quick one, down a steep hill.

La mina Chiflón del Diablo was a very small mine that was closed in the 1970's. It has two parallel tunnels which run over 500m out under the Pacific at a depth of 80m below sea level. It is naturally ventilated. The mine is now run as a museum by ex-miners, most of whom worked at much larger, neighboring mine that closed in 1997. Tours last 1 1/2 to 2 hours and cost CL$4000 (US$7.40).

The surface of the mine is fairly compact, as it is crowded from all sides by homes. There is a small accommodation block that looks like something out of a "Western" movie set. And scattered about are rusting pieces of familiar (to me) "longwall" mining equipment that came out of the neighboring mine. As I recalled the names of the pieces of equipment, all kinds of memories from my underground experiences flashed through my mind.


There were 10 of us in the group, including an Aussie from Melbourne. We donned hardhats with cap lamps, the large lamp batteries hanging from our belts. Roberto Rosas, with 23 years working in the mines, was our guide. He led us along a passage and then down some steps to another passage, which took us to the crew lifts. These cages, into which five of us crammed, took us a further 40m down to the start of the tunnel. "Only in South America," I thought as we descended.

Well walked about 500m along a tunnel that was like a stereotypical mine tunnel, supported by wooden beams. We stopped a couple of times by various drills, pick axes and shovels to pose for photos. At one point we stopped and Sr. Rosas asked us to turn our cap lamps off. He then proceeded to tell us stories of some of the colleagues he had lost while on the job. The tour was fascinating in spite of the fact that I did not understand all of Sr. Rosas' commentary.