Potosi Department

Potosi Department embodies the paradox of extraction: the region with Bolivia's highest mining output remains one of its poorest, a pattern visible since Spanish conquistadors mined Cerro Rico's silver to finance an empire. At its 17th-century peak, Potosi city was larger than London or Milan, fueled by silver that flowed to Spain and China. The mountain that generated such wealth now risks collapse from intensified mining, with 30,000 miners working its tunnels in 2025—up from 12,000 in 2023—drawn by record silver prices that solar panel and wind turbine demand has driven to near-record highs.

The department demonstrates trophic cascade dynamics: wealth extracted from Potosi flows upward and outward, while the cost of extraction—96 mining deaths in 2025 alone—stays local. This colonial pattern persists because Bolivia's landlocked geography constrains alternatives. The Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat at 10,582 square kilometers, contains an estimated 21 million metric tons of lithium—roughly half of known global reserves. Yet Bolivia has missed the lithium boom that enriched Chile and Argentina because high impurity levels and nationalist policies deterred the investment needed to develop extraction technology.

Potosi's future depends on whether new government leadership can convert potential into production. The incoming administration has promised to review contracts with Chinese and Russian firms and attract Western investment, but the department faces the same source-sink trap that has defined it for 500 years: resources flow out, poverty remains.