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Places/Boom town

Potosi

Boom town, Bolivia, founded 1545.

About Potosi

City in Bolivia. Inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1987 and on the Danger List since 2014. Cerro Rico was found by the Spaniards in 1545.1,2

Where next

Mines

Worked atCerro Rico de PotosiCerro Rico de Potosi lies about 3 km away.1

Events

Led toMercury amalgamation adopted for Potosi silverPotosi is part of this story: Mercury amalgamation adopted for Potosi silver.1

Places

ExamplesDiamantinaAnother boom town, in Bolivia: Potosi.3

Trade routes

Shipped throughArica to Potosi mercuryPotosi was an end of the arica to potosi mercury route.4Shipped throughPotosi silver to Arica (Ruta de la Plata)Potosi was an end of the potosi silver to arica (ruta de la plata) route.5Shipped throughPotosi silver to SevillePotosi was an end of the potosi silver to seville route.2

Sources

  1. Wikidata item Q35045 (Potosi)
  2. City of Potosi added to List of World Heritage in Danger UNESCO World Heritage Centre
  3. Wikidata item Q34028 (Diamantina)
  4. Orche E., Amare M.P., Transporte de mercurio desde Huancavelica a Potosi en el Peru colonial De Re Metallica 25 (Sociedad Espanola para la Defensa del Patrimonio Geologico y Minero)
  5. Correa Vera L., Del poder a los tratados: desarrollo y ferrocarriles en Bolivia, 1870-1904 Historia 46(2) (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, via Redalyc)

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

Keep exploring

Stories with these minerals

Cerro Rico rising above the rooftops of Potosí, BoliviaMining historyPotosí, the mountain of silverSilver · BoliviaHistory of miningSilver: the metal that made the first global economy1000-1850Lessons from historyBooms and busts: what mining history shows1859-2025Lessons from historyLucky breaks: the finds that almost did not happen1623-2009

All mining storiesThe world runs on rockAll mineralsMining by country

Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Cerro Rico over Potosí by Jbmurray, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pictures: Potosi, Bolivia, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)); South Africa: a crowd of people gathered outside The Goldfields offices in Johannesburg. 1896., Unknown (Wellcome Collection) (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Falu gruva, Lundberg, Bengt A / Europeana (CC0 1.0).