Most Dangerous Job on Earth?
Monday, April 30th, 2007You probably do not know about Cerro Rico or the “Rich Hill”, but you certainly know what it did for the European World. The Spaniards using Incan slaves pulled 45,000 tons of pure silver out of the hill between the mid-1500s and mid-1700s which financed their lead act on stage 1. I believe this single hill produced half of the world’s silver! Pure silver was first discovered on the surface. After the surface layer was stripped, they started to bore horizontally into the hill. Potosi had so much silver that it was the largest city in the New World with 150,000 people and was actually about the same size as or larger than London, Venice and Seville. When the silver ran out, so did Potosi and this is why you don’t hear it mentioned in the same breath as any of the other great cities. In fact, this is one very impoverished city. Since the 1980s the mines have been turned over to cooperatives which are still mining some silver, but mostly tin, zinc and lead. The same practices used three hundred years ago are still employed thus making this one of if not the most dangerous jobs in the world. In fact, Cerro Rico has killed eight million workers since the mining started!
vagabondrick