The article analyzes two important aspects of the process of the Peruvian mining novel. On the one hand, the social-realist discourses such as: social injustices, wage demands, working conditions, insecurity and ideological conflict; on the other, the metaphoric constructions of the tunnel that express literary images of the mining world. For this we use some categories of literary theory and methodologically we group some model novels where we examine their similarities and differences. With this we demonstrate that the first literary aspect is more plausible with everyday life; while the second is a literary construction of revelation of an own and unmistakable universe.