A wild road to Cerro Rico, the silver mountain that eats men

Cerro Rico (Spanish for "Rich Mountain") is a cone-shaped peak famed for its historically large silver deposits at an elevation of 4.760m (15,616ft) above the sea level, located in the Tomás Frías Province in the Potosí Department in Bolivia.

Cerro Rico

Set high in the Andes, the mountain, also known as Cerro Potosí, is an infamous silver mine famous for providing vast quantities of silver for the Spanish Empire. In the 16th century, this area was regarded as the world’s largest industrial complex. Nowadays the mines still produce zinc, tin tungsten, lead, copper and silver. Now riddled with tunnels, the mountain is a death trap for the men and boys who work there. After hundreds of years of mining, the mountain is porous and unstable, and experts say it is in danger of collapsing.

Located in the south of the country, the road to the summit is totally unpaved with countless hairpin turns. It’s extremely steep, hitting a 15% of maximum gradient through some of the ramps. The road is very dangerous because the top of the mountain is in danger of collapsing due to over-mining. It appeared in the BBC series World’s Most Dangerous Roads (series 3 episode 3).
Road suggested by: Hugh Wilson
Pic&video: Gabriel Por El Mundo

 

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