First published: 26/04/23.

Timonator 4.0

Sewell Mining Town

Sewell Mining Town (Inscribed)

Sewell Mining Town by Timonator

Thanks to the sharing of information in this community I approached Fundación Sewell in Rancagua to organise a tour. They started again after the pandemic in the beginning of 2023 with a visit roughly each weekend. I approached Angélica who was a very helpful contact and also our tourguide. The tour is in Spanish and costs 33.000 CLP, but luckily a friendly Britisch visitor translated a bit for me and other non- Spanish speakers plus Angélica explained a bit with her German skills. You can not visit Sewell on your own as CODELCO doesn't allow it and it's their territory! I took a bus at 7 in the morning from Santiago to Rancagua and returned with a bus at 5 p.m. to Santiago.

The ride to Sewell from Rancagua is already a highlight in itself. After crossing the checkpoint from CODELCO, the national copper company, there are great views of the huge copper mine La Tenienda and its industrial sites along the road. Especially because it's not possible to visit the huge Chuquicamata mine further north anymore it was interesting to get an idea where huge amounts of copper are coming from.

The tour starts after approaching Sewell Mining Town more or less at the end of road. Already before explainations in Spanish during the ride are delivered in the bus. I have to say that I got a bit of a headache with the 2000m + elevation that we passed by in the morning despite drinking a lot.

During the site visit in Sewell we were able to get inside the event hall of town, two living houses, the bowling alley, the former police station with a huge painting of the 1945 mine disaster and the church. Also we had 20 minutes in the copper museum which includes a mine simulation in the basement.

The site gives interesting insides into the life of American managers that ran this copper mine in the first part of the 20th century and the Chileans that worked in the mine. Also the landscape of the copper mine is fascinating.

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