Potosí

Sister cities

• Calama
• Cusco
• San Luis Potosí

History

Founded in 1545 as a mining town, it soon produced fabulous wealth, and the population eventually exceeded 200,000 people. The city gave rise to a Spanish expression, still in use: valer un Potosí ("to be worth a Potosí"), meaning "to be of great value". The rich mountain, Cerro Rico, produced an estimated 60% of all silver mined in the world during the second half of the 16th century. Potosí miners at first mined the rich oxidized ores with native silver and silver chloride (cerargyrite) that could be fed directly into smelting furnaces. Especially successful were the small clay "flower pot" furnaces called guayras, which had been used by the Incas. By 1565, the miners had exhausted the direct-smelting ore, and silver production plummeted. Silver production was revived by the introduction of the patio process, invented by Spanish merchant Bartolomé de Medina in 1554. The patio process used mercury amalgamation to extract silver from lower-grade ores, and those containing silver sulfide (argentite), as was typical of the unoxidized ores found deeper in the mountain. In 1609, another mercury amalgamation method, the pan amalgamation process was invented in Potosí, and proved better-adapted to the conditions at Potosí. Spanish American mines were the world's most abundant sources of silver during this time period. Spanish America's ability to supply a great amount of silver and China's strong demand for this commodity which the Spanish supplied via Latin American trade with the Philippines using the Manila Galleons, In addition to five publicly employed scribes, some forty independent notaries documented and recorded commercial transactions as well as last wills and testaments. Since Potosí was of such economic importance to the Spanish Empire, the crown bureaucracy…

Geography

Located in the Bolivian tin belt, Cerro Rico de Potosí is the world's largest silver deposit and has been mined since the sixteenth century, producing up to 60,000 tonnes by 1996. Estimates are that much silver still remains in the mines. Potosí became the second largest city, and the site of the first mint, in the Americas. By 1891, low silver prices prompted the change to mining tin, which continued until 1985. At peak production in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the ore contained up to 40% silver. The ore deposits reside in veins present in the dacite volcanic dome. The hill is "honeycombed" with underground workings, reaching from the summit to depths of . The conical hill has a reddish-brown gossan cap of iron-oxides and quartz, with grayish-blue altered dacite and many mine dumps below. }}

Most-observed species

• Soehrensia tarijensis (Vaupel) Schlumpb.

  Soehrensia tarijensis (Vaupel) Schlumpb. · Magnoliopsida
  27
• Subtropical Lady

  Vanessa carye (Hübner, 1812) · Insecta
  25
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  24
• Rufous-collared Sparrow

  Zonotrichia capensis (P.L.S.Müller, 1776) · Aves
  24
• Cumulopuntia boliviana (Salm-Dyck) F.Ritter

  Cumulopuntia boliviana (Salm-Dyck) F.Ritter · Magnoliopsida
  21
• Chiguanco Thrush

  Turdus chiguanco Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837 · Aves
  15
• Spiny Cocklebur

  Xanthium spinosum L. · Magnoliopsida
  15
• Austrocylindropuntia shaferi (Britton & Rose) Backeb.

  Austrocylindropuntia shaferi (Britton & Rose) Backeb. · Magnoliopsida
  14

Most recent

• M 4.9 — 2024-09-22
  67 km S of Challapata, Bolivia
• M 4.5 — 2024-05-09
  77 km S of Challapata, Bolivia
• M 4.3 — 2023-08-06
  Oruro-Potosi border region, Bolivia
• M 4.1 — 2021-03-10
  76 km NNE of Colchani, Bolivia
• M 4 — 2018-01-22
  43 km NNW of Camargo, Bolivia
• M 4.3 — 2016-12-27
  77 km NNE of Colchani, Bolivia