Mina La Casualidad

Mina La Casualidad was built in the 1940s to work sulphur deposits high on the volcanic slopes of western Salta, and at its peak several thousand people lived at more than 4,000 metres in one of the harshest inhabited places in Argentina, with a school, a hospital, a cinema and a cable line hauling ore down from the workings above. When the operation closed in the late 1970s the settlement was abandoned almost overnight, and the dry, freezing air of the puna has preserved it: roofless dormitories, rusting machinery, a chapel, faded paint on classroom walls and the skeleton of the refinery, all standing in a silence broken only by wind. It is a sobering place, and it belongs to the same desert circuit as Tolar Grande and the Arizaro salt flat.

What you actually see

• The abandoned settlement - dormitories, school and hospital left standing empty.
• The refinery ruins - rusting industrial structures on the mountainside.
• The chapel - the small church at the heart of the workers' town.
• The setting - volcanic slopes and salt basins at over 4,000 metres.

When to go

April to November, when tracks are firm and the weather most predictable. Trips run from Tolar Grande, usually combined with the Arizaro circuit, and take most of a day. Winter cold at this altitude is extreme even at midday.

Honest expectations

The site is decayed and genuinely dangerous in places, with unstable structures, old machinery and mine openings; wandering into buildings is unwise. There is no shelter, water or signal. At above 4,000 metres, altitude affects almost everyone, and access requires a capable vehicle and a guide.

Nearby

Tolar Grande is the base; the Cono de Arita and the Arizaro salt flat lie on the same circuit.