500 Years

Once the largest and most prosperous city in the world, Potosi hasn’t changed much since its heyday in the mid-17th Century, and the working conditions of the miners that sustain its population today haven’t either. 

After more than 500 years of exploitation, the damp insides of Potosi’s Rich Mountain appear to be on the verge of collapsing, with over 250 active mines inside the mountain, employing some 16,000 miners to risk their lives in search of mineral on a daily basis. As the international prices of Potosi’s minerals (silver, zinc and tin) soared between 2006 and 2008, thousands of prospective miners, hailing from the arid Bolivian highlands, moved to Potosi in the hopes of striking it rich.