CERRO RICO (THE RICH HILL)

The indigenous Diego Huallpa accidentally discovered and showed  the Spanish the greatest mineral deposit in the world, the Cerro Rico of Potosí (Orko Potojchi).

At first the exploitation of the ore was based on the mining technology known to the pre-Hispanic and Inca cultures. They mined pure silver called "rocicler", and exploited the ‘ayllus’, or inhabitants of the indigenous territories, by means of the imposition of the mita, obligatory work in favor of the Spanish conquerors.

Thousands of ‘mitayos’ and workers in the mines lost their life during this exploitation.

At the present time the riches of this mountain seem inexhaustible, and the Cerro Rico continues to be the main source of income for Potosí. However, there has not been a lot of change in the way mining is conducted.

MINES

A visit to the mines will always cause the visitor to feel the same sensations that the miners feel, the solitude, the abandonment, the infinite darkness, the presence of the ancestral divinities who watch over the life of the mines. The akulliqu (ritual of the coca), the ch'alla (offering to Mother Earth), and the fear of the rancor of El Tio are always present among the miners.