The El Teniente Mine and the postgraduate course in biribiri

Let’s think for a minute: if you were told that you were going to be in a mine 700 meters deep, that you were going to enter the heart of the mountain through a two-lane tunnel, like the Christ the Redeemer that we Mendozans use when we go to Chile , on a state-of-the-art electric bus, and that you were going to travel through it for about 20 minutes (traveling just a fraction of the more than 4,500 km of roads existing in the heart of the Andes), until you reached the operating center of the Esmeralda mine, one of the 5 underground mines that make up the El Teniente mining complex, the largest underground copper mine in the world, where more than 20,000 people work 365 days a year, doing their jobs and returning home every day… How would you see it?

This is what a group of Mendoza residents, members of a delegation organized by the Pilares Foundation , a private and public initiative working in Mendoza to make mining a vector of provincial development and growth, were able to experience.

Undoubtedly, one way to define what El Teniente represents is through its numbers and indicators. Some have already been detailed, while others might be that of the more than USD 45 billion worth of copper exported annually by Chile, 7% originates from the El Teniente deposit. Or that, as part of CODELCO (Copper Corporation), a Chilean state-owned company, it contributes more than USD 1.5 billion annually in surpluses for the state to implement public policies. Another might be the USD 1,200 average salary for its entry-level workers.

But I want to focus on another aspect that, while it may also have a statistical or economic dimension, refers more to a people-centered perspective, because it involves history, civic responsibility, commitment to one's own interests, and pride in making a country great.

In order to approach this other dimension, we must know that the El Teniente Complex is 2,250 meters above sea level, and just 50 km from the center of the commune of Rancagua , part of the O'Higgins Region. This is one of the most important regions in Chile in terms of agro-industrial production, which is why it is common to find cherry plantations or vast expanses of vineyards along its highways, which are part of the USD 1.73 billion exported in viticulture (remember that all Argentine viticulture reached USD 714 million in 2024).

As we ascend from the center of Rancagua toward the mountain on the way to El Teniente, along the Copper Highway, the landscape gradually changes . Plantations intended for agroindustrial production give way to forests and plants native to this mountainous area. Everything coexists in an integrated ecosystem, until we reach the base of the mine, where there is only eternal snow, the same snow we see on the mountain next to us.

Agriculture, livestock, the food industry, and mining coexist in the same region. This is nothing new; El Teniente is celebrating its 120th anniversary, and they're planning another 50 years of work to extract copper from the mountains . Throughout this time, Chilean citizens have organized and determined that in a "small" space—compared to the extent of our province—there were, are, and will be opportunities for everyone that must be seized. This was a mandate from a community to its leaders: to implement the mechanisms to make "things happen."

Here we would call it "state policy," and we tend to fill our mouths with grand speeches. Over there, they simply call it "work," but the good kind. The kind that is carried out in the simplest possible way, with the greatest technique and knowledge, in the most professional manner, and with the participation of all stakeholders. Without the "biribiri" we have here. This work I'm referring to is seen when, for example, at the El Teniente complex, a large part of the managers or leaders are young people under 40, graduates of local universities, happy and proud of what they do. For example, they perform remote operations, with autonomous machines, 100 km away from the mine, supported by data science and artificial intelligence. It doesn't even cross their minds to leave the country to work in anything else. What's more, when they leave Chile, they go to lead or train other workers in various leading companies in the sector. Why can't our children have that same opportunity?

And it's not just mining. When we look at this "good" work, for example in agriculture, its results are overwhelming if we consider cherry exports alone, which amount to more than USD 2.5 billion annually, while in Mendoza they represent only USD 2 million and in all of Argentina, USD 31 million in 2024. Here we will have several explanations and excuses as to why it can't be done, but when you see firsthand what's happening "right next door," across the mountain range, you realize that several of our political leaders have postgraduate degrees in biribiri. Chile manages to reach the most demanding markets in the world with wines made from high-quality grapes, or with a fruit that is consumed fresh like cherries. And both plantations are located beneath the largest mine in the world and use water from the same rivers or tributaries—yes, the same ones—and yet they continue to gain markets with the strictest sanitary requirements, such as those imposed by the European Community, the United States, Japan, the Middle East, or Asia. And with an equally important fact: the same challenges regarding water scarcity that Mendoza faces.

Despite all this evidence, 120 years of history, and vast amounts of scientific knowledge and experience, we in Mendoza have politicians who governed us and those who aspire to be elected, who openly maintain that there cannot be opportunities for everyone. That it cannot be done, that mining in Mendoza will only bring pollution, water shortages, corruption, and perhaps the seven plagues of Egypt (flat-earthism, perhaps?). The problem is that when they govern, we don't pay for their decisions, but rather our children. As my grandfather used to say, often the problem isn't the pig, but the one who feeds it. Being complacent with a political leadership so lacking in ideas and concerned only with perpetuating itself in public office to live off our taxes is consecrating a graduation ceremony for the graduates of biribiri.