Cerro rico, tierra rica

Overview

Towering above the city of Potosí, Cerro Rico is an enormous conical mountain and the richest silver field in mining history. It provided the Spanish Empire half of the world's silver during colonial times. Bolivia has recently discovered it also contains half of the world's lithium reserves in the Salar de Uyuni, located also in the Potosí region. The parallel stories of these two unique sites help create a compelling observational mosaic of mining life in Latin America: an elegy to the high plateaus of the Andes mountains and a stunning record of manual labor in southwestern Bolivia.