Stop 1 · Bolivia
Potosí
Cerro Rico produced perhaps 60% of the world's silver in the late 1500s. Miners still work it in cooperatives, in appalling conditions, for what is left.
Towns built by a gold or silver rush
Each stop exploded out of nothing when somebody found metal in the ground. Two are still digging; one is a ghost of what it was.
The five stops
Stop 2 · Australia
Ballarat
The Eureka Stockade rebellion lasted twenty minutes and killed 27 people, but the licence system it protested was abolished within a year.
Stop 3 · Australia
Kalgoorlie
The Golden Mile is thought to be the richest square mile of gold-bearing ground on earth. The Super Pit still produces around 20 tonnes a year.
Stop 4 · South Africa
Johannesburg
The Witwatersrand reef has produced roughly 40% of all the gold ever mined. Its deepest shafts reach almost 4 km below the surface.
Stop 5 · Canada
Dawson City
The Klondike rush lasted barely three years. Of some 100,000 who set out, around 30,000 arrived, and a few hundred made real money.
Advertisement
Think you'd have found them? Play today's expedition, or replay this one from the archive.