Simón Iturri Patiño

By the early 20th century Bolivian tin fed the world's factories and canneries.

The industry was concentrated in the hands of a few tin barons, the best known being Simón Patiño, who became one of the richest men on the planet.

In 1952, the National Revolution led by the MNR, the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement, and President Victor Paz Estensoro nationalised the Big Tin Mines into a state company, Commibol.

It ran the mines and it also ran schools, clinics and subsidised company stores for mining families.