APRIL´S FEATURED DOOR OF THE MONTH COROCORO – BOLIVIA

April 2, 2018 SouthAmerica

We love this door. We have no idea who lives here, in this small Bolivian state-run copper mining town, but they went to the effort to string up some artificial flowers in the past to celebrate a saint’s day or holiday. The door is very weathered, full of character. Maybe once painted, just like the adobe walls once had plastered but it has all but spalled away. Old drill, or bolt holes, marking the presence of previous hardware, handles, or door locks. A patch added to the right door, not pretty, but functional. What made a hole there? How long ago? There are so many riddles one can ponder looking at this old door.

southamericatotheworld.com — Corocoro – Bolivia

Corocoro is essentially Bolivia’s only copper mine. It is run today by Comibol, the state miner, which in general operates at a loss, and is a highly political entity providing welfare employment to the mining unions. But where Corocoro comes into highlight geologically, it is a long operating underground mine, coming from copper oxide ores from Cenozoic red beds. This is sandstone hosted copper, the type of which is found mainly in Africa. There are dozens of smaller prospects scattered across central Bolivia with this sediment hosted copper mineralization, but for some reason, Corocoro developed with greater endowment, more metal in the ground, that geologically nobody has an explanation for.

What kind of wood is this door made from? No trees grow up here in the Altiplano. Bolivian wood? Who cut down the tree? Where was the lumber mill? Was the door crafted in La Paz or locally? How long ago? And what has happened behind this door?

The town of Corocoro is small, and has old mine related government-run buildings. The surrounding miner’s housing is about as dirt poor as it gets, living in mud-walled small row buildings. Dirt roads, dogs wandering the streets, and very few stores, or anything modern are characteristics of the town. Corocoro sits tucked away in a small wide canyon, with wide plateaus to the south at this high elevation of 4,000 meters. The place is cold and roasted in intense UV, and other high particle radiation. Bolivians continue to this day struggling to extract copper, and hiding behind these old wooden doors.