what year did silver discovered at potosi
PotosÃ (Silver Mines of Colonial Peru) Silver ore was serendipitously discovered at PotosÃ­ by an Indian yanacona (servant) named Diego Gualpa in 1545. Within a few years there had commenced a vast silver rush, which peaked in the 1590s, after which silver production underwent a gradual decline, though the mines continued to be worked throughout the colonial period. In 1545, the population of PotosÃ­ and its environs stood at around 3,000.