Carguaicollo Mine, Uyuni Municipality, Antonio Quijarro Province, Potosí, Boliviai

Regional Level Types
Carguaicollo Mine	Mine (Active)
Uyuni Municipality	Municipality
Antonio Quijarro Province	Province
Potosí	Department
Bolivia	Country

Perhaps the only active tin mine in the world where one of the main ores is a tin sulfide!

First worked intensively for silver by Avelino Aramayo in the 19th century, but then the deposits fell into obscurity and were forgotten. The Agua Santa Co. undertook a failed attempt to mine tin in 1912. Geologist Federico Ahlfeld rediscovered the abandoned mine in 1926, after which it got reactivated. Tihua Mines started their operations in 1931.

Unlike many other famous mines in Bolivia, Carguaycollo was never operated by COMIBOL (the State mining corporation). It was worked by the Tihua mining company, owned by Carlos Braun and Jorge Salinas Garcia. Later (1956), because of the fall in tin and silver prices, the owners agreed to let the miners form a cooperative to take over the operations. Later, the cooperative was terminated, and the mine passed back into the hands of the previous owners, who established the Empresa Minera Resurección ("REMINSA") in 1978. Later they sold the mine to Golden Star, a Canadian company that installed a flotation plant, which eventually closed because of lack of reserves. After the Canadians abandoned the property, it was taken over by the miners' cooperative again. (Thanks to Ing. Mateo Vlahovic for these notes on the history of the mine.)

"Queria aclarar que esta mina nunca fue de Comibol, fue trabajada por la Empresa Minera Tihua Mines de Carlos Braun y Jorge Salinas Garcia, luego se formo una Cooperativa (1956) en acuerdo con los dueños por la caida de los precios del Sn y de la Ag. Posteriormente la Cooperativa se termino y la mina paso nuevamente a manos de los dueños y se formo la Empresa Resurección minera "REMINSA" (1978). Posteriormente vendieron la mina a la Golden Star, una Empresa Canadiense que instalo un ingenio de flotación y cerro por falta de reservas para finalmente volver a la Cooperativa ante el abandono de los Canadienses." (Ing. Mateo Vlahovic)

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