Historically, Bolivia is more famed for silver from the great Potosi mine, discovered
by the Spanish in 1545, but gold output has grown since 1990 with the expansion
of the Kori Kollo open-pit mine, which is
88% owned by Newmont. Kori Kollo output
reached 9.0 tonnes (0.29 million ounces) in 2000 and increased in 2001 to reach
9.5 tonnes (0.31 million oz). This, together with informal production, particularly
on the rivers flowing east from the Cordillera Real resulted in total mine supply
from the country of just over 15 tonnes (0.48 million oz) in 2001, according to
estimates produced by GFMS.