As I write, the fifth of the trapped miners is being rescued from the San
Jose de Copiapo mine. The emotionality of the scene is overwhelming, of
course, even to those who are watching it from the other side of the world.
What is significant, though, is that the fittest and most psychologically
balanced miners are being raised first (and, interestingly, those with the
most attractive wives and young children.) Why? To make for a better scene
for the media, one imagines. The most traumatized miners will be raised
much later, I would guess, when the videos will only be of interest to
miners' families and psychiatrists. If the mine owners, or the miner's
union (if there is one) or the government (most likely) have played their
cards well, then they'll be earning an astronomical sum of money from the
international media -- possibly exceeding the cost of the rescue. Sky News
lost no opportunity in lacing their videos with adverts for luxury cars. I
wonder how much of that will actually recycle into more safety for miners
in the future?
So far there is no clue as to whether the San Jose mine was extracting
copper or gold or perhaps both. The price of copper has been rising in
recent years but most of this metal is mined in huge mines owned by
multinational companies or the state. In this case the San Jose mine -- a
small one -- is likely to be exclusively or principally operated for gold
because the Chilean government owns large copper mines already.
The cost of mining gold (including its subsequent refining) varies
enormously around the world but is about $800/ounce on average in North
America and Australia. Because Western governments and America have been
suppressing the price of gold on the open market for 50 years by various
schemes (for fear of exposing the inflation of their national currencies)
gold mining more generally has only started to become profitable in the
last few years. However, with gold prices now at $1350/ounce and steadily
rising, the profit is considerable. Old closed-down mines are being
re-activated and new ones opened.
The San Jose mine was closed down in 2007 after an accident which killed a
miner because the gold-bearing veins, spiralling downwards were becoming
precarious -- even for a mining company, Empresa Minera San Esteban, which
has a poor safety record. However, it was re-opened in 2008. By Chilean
standards, the miners are well paid but evidently the safety of the mine
was not much improved because EMSE was apparently still not abiding by
government regulations.
When the rescue is complete -- and one must still cross one's fingers --
the world will lose interest in the San Jose, but it will be interesting to
read further accounts if any are published. If it's principally or
exclusively a gold mine it will almost certainly be re-opened because,
quite besides future profits per se, the Chilean government, like all
non-Western governments, is now accumulating as much gold as possible for
their reserves against the day when the American dollar loses what
credibility it still has as a trading currency and a new world currency is
established.
There are even rumours that Western central banks are also now buying gold
as their ultimate safety factor. Since the credit-crunch they are certainly
not selling any.
Keith
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England
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