What Bolivian city lies beneath a mountain dubbed the Cerro Rico ('rich mountain') named so for its famed mines that were a major source of silver for the Spanish Empire of the New World?
"recently in 2016, Bolivia's Deputy Interior Minister Rodolfo Ilanes was tortured and killed, allegedly by a Bolivian mining cooperative. This outburst of violence has led to clashes between cooperative miners and the police leaving five miners dead and severing a decade of strong ties between cooperative mining and the Morales government. Cerro Rico de Potosí was accidentally discovered in 1545 by Diego de Huallpa, a Quechua silver miner for Spanish invaders, while he was searching the mountain for an Inca shrine or traditional burial offering. The red mountain, now known as Cerro Rico, sits nestled between Porco and Sucre mines"
"thereafter. By 1538 while Lower Peru was still unsettled due to war, official Spanish cities such as the future archdiocese at Sucre were initiated in Upper Peru or what is today Bolivia. In 1545 a massive silver strike was discovered nearby at the Cerro Rico, Potosi. Because of the importance of this site—nearly all of the silver on the Spanish Main originated from there—special attention from the Spanish Crown and allied missions resulted in the establishment of a greater number of religious settlements in the general area. Within this timeframe the growing mining town of Potosi became the Imperial City"
"at the end of 2012 were 5.3 million ounces of silver and 665,000 ounces of gold. San Bartolomé mine is a surface silver mine located near the historic mining city of Potosi, Bolivia; a world heritage site. Mining of silver and silver-tin veins from Cerro Rico, a volcanic mountain adjacent to Potosi, began in the mid 1500s and has been continuous for over 450 years. In the 1650s, Potosi was the largest city in the western hemisphere with 160,000 residents. Today, up to 15,000 people make a living mining small underground silver-tin veins. The property consists of approximately 4,800 hectares"
"South America. Although Andean Amerindian peoples crafted ceremonial jewelry of gold and other metals, the mineralizations of the Andes were first mined in large scale after the Spanish arrival. Potosí in present-day Bolivia and Cerro de Pasco in Peru were one of the principal mines of the Spanish Empire in the New World. Río de la Plata and Argentina derive their names from the silver of Potosí. Currently, mining in the Andes of Chile and Peru places these countries as the first and third major producers of copper in the world. Peru also contains the 4th largest goldmine in the"
"which China desired, so they traded silver to make up for their trade deficit. The two most important mining colonies of the Spanish Empire were Peru and Mexico, who were estimated to have provided one-hundred thousand tons of silver from the mid 16th Century to the end of the colonial period. The richest, and most productive mine in the Americas was that of Potosí in what is modern day Bolivia. The richest camp in Mexico was in the city of Zacatecas, however the production of this mine was far less than that of Potosi. More simplistic native mining techniques dominated"
"The silver from mines at Potosí, Bolivia circulated around the world. Peruvian and other New World silver was so plentiful that it caused inflation in Spain and a collapse in its price. Even today, Peru and Bolivia produce much of the world's silver. Luis Jerónimo Fernández de Cabrera prohibited direct trade between Peru and New Spain (Mexico) and the persecution of Portuguese Jews, the principal traders in Lima. A census taken by the last Quipucamayoc indicated that there were 12 million inhabitants of Inca Peru; 45 years later, under viceroy Toledo, the census figures amounted to only 1,100,000 Indians. While"
"The motor of the Spanish colonial economy was the extraction of silver. In Bolivia, it was from the single rich mountain of Potosí; but in New Spain, there were two major mining sites, one in Zacatecas, the other in Guanajuato. The region farther north of the main mining zones attracted few Spanish settlers. Where there were settled indigenous populations, such as in the present-day state of New Mexico and in coastal regions of Baja and Alta California, indigenous culture retained considerable integrity. The Bajío, a rich, fertile lowland just north of central Mexico, was nonetheless a frontier region between the"
"silver to this day. Due to poor worker conditions, such as a lack of protective equipment against the constant inhalation of dust, many of the miners contract silicosis and have a life expectancy of around 40 years. The mountain is still a significant contributor to the city's economy, employing some 15,000 miners. It is known as 'mountain that eats men' because of the large number of workers who died in the mines. Some writers such as Eduardo Galeano, in his work Open Veins of Latin America, estimates that up to 8 million have died in the Cerro Rico since the"
"of New Spain. Captain Caldera sent Gregorio de León, Juan de la Torre, and Pedro de Anda to verify the existence of the minerals. The latter named the locale San Pedro del Potosí, to honor his namesake saint and in memory of the famous mines of the Potosí in Alto Perú of the Viceroyalty of Peru, in present-day Bolivia. Gold and silver were found in and around the hills of San Pedro, but there was not enough local water to support mining operations. The nearest water source was to the north in the homelands of the Chichimeca people. Hindrances were"
"every year. In 2014, UNESCO added Cerro Rico and Potosí to its list of endangered sites, owing to ""uncontrolled mining operations"" that risk ""degrading the site"". Bolivia's cooperative mining sector, whose center is in Potosi, has been given many privileges included favorable tax treatment and exemption from labor and environmental regulations since the election of socialist president Evo Morales in 2006. After centuries of brutal Spanish extraction and forced labor, decades of foreign control and private investment in the late 20th century, and the failure of the state-run mining company COMIBOL led to the displacement of 25,000 miners following plummeting"
"in Paraguay, but survivors brought precious metals back to corroborate their story. The legend inspired other expeditions, all of which ended in failure. The Río de la Plata (literally ""Silver River"") and the modern country of Argentina (from the Latin ""argentum"", ""silver"") both take their names from the myth. The legend of the Sierra de la Plata may have been based on the Cerro Rico de Potosí in Bolivia, which was discovered by a Spanish expedition traveling from Peru in 1545. The legend of the White King and the Sierra de la Plata began with the expeditions of Juan Díaz"
"Oruro, Bolivia Oruro (Hispanicized spelling) or Uru Uru is a city in Bolivia with a population of 264,683 (2012 calculation), about halfway between La Paz and Sucre in the Altiplano, approximately above sea level. It is Bolivia's fifth-largest city by population, after Santa Cruz de la Sierra, El Alto, La Paz, and Cochabamba. It is the capital of the department of Oruro and the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oruro. Oruro has been subject to cycles of boom and bust owing to its dependence on the mining industry, notably tin, tungsten (wolfram), silver and copper. The city was"
"encountered were limited. Therefore, Spain started to invest in America with the creation of cities, because Spain was in America due to religious reasons. Matters began to change in the 1520s with the large-scale extraction of silver from the rich deposits of Mexico's Guanajuato region, but it was the opening of the silver mines in Mexico's Zacatecas and Potosí in Upper Peru (modern-day Bolivia) in 1546 that became legendary. During the 16th century, Spain held the equivalent of US$1.5 trillion (1990 terms) in gold and silver received from New Spain. These imports contributed to inflation in Spain and Europe from"
"world: the Yanacocha. The Bolivian Andes produce principally tin although historically silver mining had a huge impact on the economy of 17th century Europe. There is a long history of mining in the Andes, from the Spanish silver mines in Potosí in the 16th century to the vast current porphyry copper deposits of Chuquicamata and Escondida in Chile and Toquepala in Peru. Other metals including iron, gold and tin in addition to non-metallic resources are important. This list contains some of the major peaks in the Andes mountain range. The highest peak is Aconcagua of Argentina (see below). Andes The"
"Martinez de Begazo in 1541, and in 1570, the area was grandly retitled as ""La Muy Ilustre y Real Ciudad San Marcos de Arica"" (the very illustrious and royal city of San Marcos of Arica). By 1545, Arica was the main export entrepot for Bolivian silver coming down from Potosí, which then possessed the world's largest silver mine. Arica thus held the crucial role as one of the leading ports of the Spanish Empire. The envious riches made Arica the target for pirates, buccaneers, and privateers, among whom Francis Drake, Thomas Cavendish, Richard Hawkins, Joris van Spilbergen, John Watling, Simon"
"The town became a centre for trade and services of a large mining district. The mining zone slowly grew northwards into the diffuse border with Bolivia. At the end of the silver rush rich miners had diversified their assets into banking, agriculture, trade and commerce all over Chile. A last major discovery of silver occurred 1870 in Caracoles in Bolivian territory adjacent to Chile. Apart from being discovered by Chileans, the ore was also extracted with Chilean capital and miners. In the 19th century Claudio Gay and Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna where among the first to raise the question of the"
"occurred 1870 in Caracoles in Bolivian territory adjacent to Chile. Apart from being discovered by Chileans, the ore was also extracted with Chilean capital and miners. Chilean silver rush Between 1830 and 1850 Chilean silver mining grew at an unprecedented pace which transformed mining into one of the country's principal sources of wealth. The rush caused rapid demographic, infrastructural, and economic expansion in the semi-arid Norte Chico mountains where the silver deposits lay. A number of Chileans made large fortunes in the rush and made investments in other areas of the economy of Chile. By the 1850s the rush was"
"Chañarcillo Chañarcillo is a town and mine in the Atacama Desert of Copiapó Province, Atacama Region, Chile, located near Vallenar and 75 kilometres from Copiapó. It is noted for its silver mining. The town grew up after the Chañarcillo silver mine was discovered on May 16, 1832 by Juan Godoy. This event sparkled the Chilean silver rush. It grew in prominence in the second half of the nineteenth century and became important in the Atacama mining industry and one of the most important mines to the Chilean economy. It was connected by railway before 1862. Today it is something of"
"of the encomendero group, but that group found ways to engage free labor to maintain the viability and profitability of their landed estates. The Spanish discovery of silver in huge deposits was the great transformative commodity for the Spanish empire's economy. Discovered Upper Peru (now Bolivia) at Potosí and in northern Mexico, silver mining became the economic motor of the Spanish empire. Spain's economic power was built on silver exports from Spanish America. The silver peso was both an export commodity as well as the first global money, transforming the economies of Europe as well as China. In Peru silver"
"the vast silver deposits that were found mainly in Potosí in modern-day Bolivia and to a lesser extent in Mexico (for example, at Taxco & Zacatecas), and to silver from Spain's possessions throughout the Americas, mints in Mexico and Peru also began to strike the coin. The main New World mints for Spanish dollars were at Potosí, Lima, and Mexico City (with minor mints at Bogotá, Popayán, Guatemala City, and Santiago), and silver dollars from these mints could be distinguished from those minted in Spain by the Pillars of Hercules design on the reverse. In the 19th century, the coin's"
"on the New York Stock Exchange, giving it listings on a total of 3 major stock exchanges. Since antiquity, a site along the Rio Tinto, in the Andalusian province of Huelva in Spain has been mined for copper, silver, gold, and other minerals. Around 3000 BC, Iberians and Tartessians began mining the site, followed by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Visigoths, and Moors. After a period of abandonment, the mines were rediscovered in 1556 and the Spanish government began operating them once again in 1724. However, Spain's mining operations there were inefficient, and the government itself was otherwise distracted by political"
"emigrated to such places as the Philippines and Borneo to take advantage of the new commercial opportunities. The increase in gold and silver experienced by Spain coincided with a major inflationary cycle both within Spain and Europe, known as the price revolution. Spain had amassed large quantities of gold and silver from the New World. In the 1520s large scale extraction of silver from Mexico's Guanajuato began. With the opening of the silver mines in Zacatecas and Bolivia's Potosí in 1546 large shipments of silver became the fabled source of wealth. During the 16th century, Spain held the equivalent of"
"San Cristóbal mine (Bolivia) The San Cristobal mine in Lipez, Potosí Department, Bolivia is an open-pit silver, lead and zinc mine near the town of San Cristóbal, Potosí. The mine, operated by Sumitomo Corporation, produces approximately 1,300 metric tons of zinc-silver concentrate and 300 tons of lead-silver concentrate per day, , by processing 40,000 to 50,000 tons of rock. It is one of Bolivia's largest mining facilities and, according to Sumitomo, the world’s sixth-largest producer of zinc and third-largest producer of silver. It is located in southwestern Bolivia and hosts approximately 450 million ounces of silver and 8 billion pounds"
"Cerro de Pasco Cerro de Pasco (population 70,000) is a city in central Peru, located at the top of the Andean mountains. It is the capital of the Pasco region, and an important mining center. At elevation, it is one of the highest cities in the world, and the highest or the second highest city with over 50,000 inhabitants, with elevation reaching up to 4,380 m in the Yanacancha area. It is connected by road and by rail to the capital Lima, as far as 300 km. Cerro de Pasco became one of the world's richest silver producing areas after"
"but lesser minerals such as copper and tin became important starting in the late nineteenth century, with foreign investors providing capital. Tin became the main export product of Bolivia, eventually replacing silver, but silver extraction prompted the building of a railway line, which then allowed tin mining to be profitable. In Chile, copper mining became its most important export. It was a significant industry in Mexico as well. Extraction of nitrates from regions Chile acquired from Bolivia and Peru in its victory in the War of the Pacific became an important source of revenue. Following independence, most Latin American countries"
"This territory later became the Viceroyalty of New Spain, present day Mexico. Of equal importance was the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire by Francisco Pizarro, which would become the Viceroyalty of Peru. After the conquest of Mexico, rumors of golden cities (Quivira and Cíbola in North America and El Dorado in South America) motivated several other expeditions. Many of those returned without having found their goal, or finding it much less valuable than was hoped. Indeed, the New World colonies only began to yield a substantial part of the Crown's revenues with the establishment of mines such as that"
"world after the Rock of Gibraltar and Sugarloaf Mountain in Río de Janeiro. It was considered sacred by the Chichimeca and dates back to the Jurassic Period more than 100 million years ago. The community was originally occupied by the Otomi. Many colonial structures in the town of sandstone have survived to the present day. It also was a scene of a battle during the French intervention in Mexico . The El Cerrito pyramid is here climbed by those dressed in White for the spring equinox. Today, tourism is an important part of the area’s economy, attracting both those interested"
"1. Lima, 2. Puno 1784<br> 3. Trujillo, 4. Tarma, 5. Huancavelica, 6. Cusco, 7. Arequipa, (10. Chiloé, abolished in 1789) 1786<br> 8. Santiago, 9. Concepción The economy of the viceroyalty of Peru largely revolved on the massive exports of silver. The huge amounts of silver exported from the viceroyalty of Peru and Mexico had also a deep impact on Europe where it believed by some scholars to have caused the so-called ""price revolution"". Silver mining was carried out using contract and free wage labourers as well as the mita system of unfree labour, a system inherited from pre-Hispanic times. Silver"
"of such a specialized town is La Rinconada, Peru, a gold-mining town and the highest elevation human habitation at . A counterexample is El Alto, Bolivia, at , which has a highly diverse service and manufacturing economy and a population of nearly 1 million. Traditional mountain societies rely on agriculture, with higher risk of crop failure than at lower elevations. Minerals often occur in mountains, with mining being an important component of the economics of some montane societies. More recently, tourism supports mountain communities, with some intensive development around attractions such as national parks or ski resorts. About 80% of"
"buildings were moved. Nowadays what remains are a few houses and the school (the largest building). Rio Tinto, Nevada Rio Tinto is a ghost town in Elko County, Nevada in the United States. Rio Tinto was one of the last mining boom towns. It was named after the prosperous copper mines in Andalusia, Spain that produced ore for 3,000 years.. The discovery of copper mines near Rio Tinto is credited to Franklyn Hunt who had explored in the west for many years. Hunt had found traces of copper a few miles from Mountain City, Nevada. He had claimed his discovery,"
"lived off the labor of the indigenous peoples. Due to some horrifying instances of abuse against the native peoples, Bishop Bartolomé de las Casas suggested importing black slaves to replace them. Las Casas later repented when he saw the even worse treatment given to the black slaves. The other discovery that perpetuated this system of indigenous forced labor were the extensive silver mines discovered at Potosi, in Higher Peru (now Bolivia) and other places in the Spanish empire in the New World that were worked for hundreds of years by forced native labor and contributed most of the wealth that"
"Coroico Coroico is a town in Nor Yungas Province, in the La Paz Department of western Bolivia. Coroico Viejo (Old Coroico) was founded above the river Quri Wayq'u (Quechua ""quri"" gold, ""wayq'u"" valley, hispanicized spellings ""Coriguayco"", ""Kori Huayco""). The town lived from mining gold, but the massive attacks by Native populations left the first Spanish colonial settlers in search of protection. Looking for a defendable position in the early 18th century, the settlers arrived at the current location of Coroico only to be chased into a cave by one of Mount Uchumachi's powerful lightning storms. The cave still exists below"
"as opposed to argentiferous deposits of other metals, came from Tertiary period vulcanism. The principal sources of silver are the ores of copper, copper-nickel, lead, and lead-zinc obtained from Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, China, Australia, Chile, Poland and Serbia. Peru, Bolivia and Mexico have been mining silver since 1546, and are still major world producers. Top silver-producing mines are Cannington (Australia), Fresnillo (Mexico), San Cristóbal (Bolivia), Antamina (Peru), Rudna (Poland), and Penasquito (Mexico). Top near-term mine development projects through 2015 are Pascua Lama (Chile), Navidad (Argentina), Jaunicipio (Mexico), Malku Khota (Bolivia), and Hackett River (Canada). In Central Asia, Tajikistan is known"