Sewell Mining Town
Situated at 2,000 m in the Andes, 60 km to the east of Rancagua, in an environment marked by extremes of climate, Sewell Mining Town was built by the Braden Copper company in 1905 to house workers at what was to become the world’s largest underground copper mine, El Teniente. It is an outstanding example of the company towns that were born in many remote parts of the world from the fusion of local labour and resources from an industrialized nation, to mine and process high-value natural resources. The town was built on a terrain too steep for wheeled vehicles around a large central staircase rising from the railway station. Along its route formal squares of irregular shape with ornamental trees and plants constituted the main public spaces or squares of the town. The buildings lining the streets are timber, often painted in vivid green, yellow, red and blue. At its peak Sewell numbered 15,000 inhabitants, but was largely abandoned in the 1970s.
Situated at 2,000 m in the Andes, 60 km to the east of Rancagua, in an environment marked by extremes of climate, Sewell Mining Town was built by the Braden Copper company in 1905 to house workers at what was to become the world’s largest underground copper mine, El Teniente. It is an outstanding example of the company towns that were born in many remote parts of the world from the fusion of local labour and resources from an industrialized nation, to mine and process high-value natural resources. The town was built on a terrain too steep for wheeled vehicles around a large central staircase rising from the railway station. Along its route formal squares of irregular shape with ornamental trees and plants constituted the main public spaces or squares of the town. The buildings lining the streets are timber, often painted in vivid green, yellow, red and blue. At its peak Sewell numbered 15,000 inhabitants, but was largely abandoned in the 1970s.
Outstanding Universal Value
Brief Synthesis
Sewell Mining Town, located more than 2,200 m above sea level, clambers up the barren slopes of central Chile’s Los Andes Cordillera above the world’s largest underground copper mine, El Teniente. The first copper company town in Chile (the main producer of this metal in the world), the now-uninhabited Sewell is an outstanding example of the global phenomenon of company towns in which settlements were established in remote parts of the world to extract and process natural resources – in this case, high-value copper. These company towns were typically created through a fusion of local labour with external capital and resources. Sewell Mining Town is particularly notable for its contribution to the global spread of large-scale mining technology.
Sewell’s origins go back to 1905, when the Chilean government authorized American mining engineer William Braden to exploit the copper mine. In an epic commercial endeavour, Braden built roads, a concentrator plant, camps and a railway that connected this remote place to the city of Rancagua 60 km away. El Teniente and the town of Sewell were owned by American companies until 1971, when the copper industry was nationalized and became the property of the State, which, by the end of 1960, had already become the major stockholder. Sewell had gradually expanded to accommodate 15,000 people in 175,000 square metres by the time of its maximum development in 1968. The town then slowly lost population when the company resolved that it was more efficient to move its workers to Rancagua. A process of demolition ended in the 1990s when a policy oriented toward the protection and conservation of the site was implemented.
Sewell is a company town of great originality. It is known as the Ciudad de las Escaleras (City of Stairs) or Ciudad Derramada en el Cerro (City Spread Down the Hill) because of its urban configuration on the steep Andean slopes. These dramatic inclines gave rise to an organic design characterised by an exclusively pedestrian interior circulation system of stairs and paths, with public places built on small open areas between the buildings. The construction of buildings and industrial facilities shows great creativity and quality in the use of wood and steel. Their architectural expression is marked by austerity, functionality and the imprint of modernism.
The most outstanding attributes of the property are the industrial installations, which take advantage of the hillside incline for the mineral grinding process; the buildings that combine houses on the upper floors with business or services in the ground floor; the service buildings, public spaces and pedestrian circulation system; the electric infrastructure and drinking water and sewer systems; the assorted and diverse networks of pipes crossing the town, as well as the Rebolledo Bridge; and the urban design and the ensemble’s location in the stark Andean landscape. Among the industrial installations, the Concentrator (still in working order) and the energy infrastructure stand out, as well as the Punta de Rieles (Rails’ End) sector at the highest point on the property. In Sewell was forged a special culture – a combination of Chilean and American customs – which survives with its former residents and their descendants.
Criterion (ii): Sewell town in its hostile environment is an outstanding example of the global phenomenon of company towns, established in remote parts of the world through a fusion of local labour with resources from already industrialised nations, to mine and process high value copper. The town contributed to the global spread of large-scale mining technology.
Integrity
Within the boundaries of the 17.2-ha property are located all the elements necessary to express the Outstanding Universal Value of Sewell Mining Town, including 38 percent of the housing and 80 percent of the industrial buildings that constituted the town at the time of its maximum development. These buildings form the central core of the town as it was configured by the mid 20th century. The property includes all the construction typologies historically located here except for the detached single-family houses of the American inhabitants, all of which have been destroyed. The pedestrian circulation system, public spaces and service infrastructure are intact and remain operational. The property does not suffer from adverse effects of development or neglect.
The property (which is surrounded by a 33-ha buffer zone) is within a mining exploitation area, so access is controlled; tour visits are limited, and undertaken only under the supervision of authorized operators. Because of this provision, the property does not suffer from looting and does not face undue tourism pressure.
Authenticity
Sewell Mining Town is authentic in terms of the ensemble’s forms and designs, materials and substances, uses and functions, and location and setting. The industrial sector of the property still operates, thereby assuring its full authenticity of use and function. Although copper flotation (metal separation) is no longer performed in the Concentrator, mineral grinding still is. Sewell is a remarkable example of synergy between production and property conservation, and its future viability largely depends on this balance.
In the non-industrial sector buildings, some interior transformations took place in the 1980s, but are reversible. Most of the buildings have been thoroughly restored and are subjected to periodic maintenance; their construction systems, design and essential characteristics have been preserved. The town also includes buildings that authentically illustrate the full range of its construction stages, including the last stage before its depopulation, when management introduced modern reinforced concrete buildings (Building No. 501, built in 1958, for example). It has been recommended, in the context of the Committee’s comment at the time of inscription concerning adaptive re-use, that evidence of the town’s buildings’ original functions be strengthened.
The widespread use of wood creates a serious potential for fire, although the high altitude reduces this risk, and there are strict safety procedures to minimise this and other potential disasters. The high altitude has also made the property inhospitable to xylophagous insects.
Protection and management requirements
Sewell Mining Town is owned by the El Teniente Division of the National Copper Corporation of Chile (Codelco-Chile), a State-owned corporation created by Decree Law No. 1.350 of 30 January 1976. In 2006 this corporation created the Fundación Sewell (Sewell Foundation), a non-profit organization devoted specifically to managing, administering, conserving and promoting Sewell Mining Town’s assets as a museum site for the copper mining industry, and to which it provides funding. Sewell Mining Town was declared a National Monument by virtue of Ministry of Education Decree No. 857 of 27 August 1998, and is therefore overseen by the National Monuments Council. A Management Plan was in force for the period 2006-2010, but has not yet been updated. An important management principle for the property has been community participation: the former inhabitants of Sewell’s contribution to conserving and developing the property and its memory for future generations is underlined, as are historical and archaeological investigations and interpretation of the property as a testimony to Chilean copper mining as a whole.
Sustaining the Outstanding Universal Value of the property over time will require updating, approving and implementing the Management Plan for the property; maintaining a rigorous maintenance programme, given the harsh climatic conditions; in the context of adaptive re-use, restoring rather than adapting a number of the dwelling units in order to display the realities of mining life in the town and to keep sufficient evidence of the internal layout of the buildings to ensure that their original functions can be discerned; and ensuring that interventions, including those related to ongoing copper mining and processing activities, do not compromise the Outstanding Universal Value, authenticity and integrity of the property.
Historical Description
The existence of the el Teniente copper deposits seems to have been known and mined in pre-Hispanic times. During the 15th - 17th centuries, raw materials were exported by the Spanish and then for two hundred years there was little activity. In 1897 the then owner of the mining rights initiated a survey of the copper seams in the area. On discovering the huge potential of the site, and the fact that extracting the copper would require great investment, an approach was made in 1903 to the North American mining engineer William Braden who had taken part in the Great Exhibition in Santiago in 1894.
Braden arrived in Chile the following year, 1904, and begun acquiring the property. Almost immediately a road was constructed to the nearest railway line at Rancagua. Braden joined forces with E W Nash, President of the American Smelting and Refining Company and with Barton Sewell, the founder and Vice-President, they created the Braden Copper Company.
Over the next two years the infrastructure was developed, customs exemption agreed by the government of Chile for the large amounts of machinery to be imported from the US, and the mine equipped. By 1906, the first mill and concentrator had been erected, a lift established and an electricity generator installed. All these works involved what was then cutting edge technology, but in an extremely remote and hostile environment which initially led to set-backs. However, mining was officially authorised and begun in 1905.
In 1909 the recession in the US led to financial difficulties and fresh funds were injected by a company belonging to the Guggenheim brothers who took overall control in 1915 and the Braden Copper Company became a subsidiary of Kennecott Copper Corporation.
The operation base for the company was located at Rancagua which developed rapidly as a town. In 1917, the old foundry at Sewell was replaced by a more modern one in Caletones, where a new town also developed.
Although the company was prosperous, conditions for the mine workers in terms of industrial safety was not good. In 1945 a major, tragic, disaster occurred which spotlighted the problems: a fire in the entrance to the mine sent smoke to the galleries below choking 355 workers to death. The ‘Smoke Tragedy' led to a government investigation and a widespread national debate on the inadequacy of safety legislation and the power wielded by foreign companies. The company responded by developing a large department of industrial safety.
By the 1950s Chile had become the second largest copper producer in the world. As a result of ‘Chilenization' in 1967, the Government of Chile gained a 51% share of the mine and in 1971 the industry was nationalised and the company became a division of the Copper Corporation of Chile. This brought changes such as the El Teniente Club becoming the miners' cafeteria and the class A housing and other buildings being demolished.
At this time a decision was taken to move the population of Sewell further down the valley, in order to provide better facilities.
The town was abandoned as a mining settlement in 1980, remaining in partial use as a dormitory for contractors' personnel, and this led to the modification of some of the buildings and further demolition of others.
Demolition was finally halted at the end of the 1980s and in 1998 the town was declared a national monument.
The mine however still functions and el Teniente division of the Copper Corporation now produces 3% of the worlds' copper.
Source: UNESCO/CLT/WHC
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