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Cerro Rico is a crazy place, geologically speaking. Apparently around 800 million ounces of silver (22,695 metric tons) were produced between 1545 and 1823 [1],
by cbkeller 7y ago
Cerro Rico is a crazy place, geologically speaking. Apparently around 800 million ounces of silver (22,695 metric tons) were produced between 1545 and 1823 [1], and even after about half a millennium of mining it still has another 1.7 billion ounces in estimated silver reserves [2].
It's a swiss cheese of tunnels by now, so much so that the summit is subsiding at a rate of a few cm/yr [2] due to the gradual collapse of the mountain.
[1] https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.013.2 https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.013.2
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerro_Rico https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerro_Rico
- vmurthy 7y agoYou bring out a very interesting fact. A not-so-known side effect of all that mining is that it flooded the Spanish markets in that era with so much silver that it lost its value. Niall Ferguson in “The Ascent of Money” suggests that all that silver in Spain couldn’t really prevent Spain from financial headaches. Makes you wonder if the first QE was way back in 1500s , doesn’t it? :-)