IN STEREO

With the mines, I agree that the government has to try to explore new areas for people to go. For the moment, they can’t leave the mine because they have to work. They have to support their families. I heard that the government of Bolivia is exploring new areas around Potosí – maybe if they find good places, the miners can go there. That’s one way to prevent the mountain sinking. But the most important for me is talk between foreign companies, COMIBOL, and miners. Because you know, one company is working the mountain now – an American company, Manquiri. I know their contract already finished last year. The government made a new contract, but nobody wants to tell the people for how many more years. Maybe ten or 15 more years.

And now some miners, socios [members of the cooperative with rights to work a certain area, who hire other miners to work there for them], have contracts with the foreign company. So they share the money with them. They say they’re extracting the minerals from outside, from the surface, and not touching the rock, the hard part [inside]. But that’s not true. If we went to the mountain now, we could see they’re still working in the night: extracting, destroying the mountain. Thanks to that as well, the mountain is sinking. The bad problem is that this foreign company, Manquiri, is earning good money, but they are paying just 3% of the production to Potosí, or Bolivia. That’s very bad! That’s nothing. And nobody knows for how many more years. – Ronald