Simón Iturri Patiño

Simón Iturri Patiño (Cochabamba, Bolivia 1 June, 1862- Buenos Aires, Argentina 20 April, 1947) was a Bolivian industrialist who was among the world's wealthiest men at the time of his death. With a fortune built from ownership of a majority of the tin industry in Bolivia, Patiño was nicknamed "The Andean Rockefeller". During World War II, Patiño was believed to be one of the five wealthiest men in the world ^[1].

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Patiño's biographers are not in agreement on the details of his early life. Some wrote that he was a cholo, with a mixed Inca and Spanish heritage, and born to a poor mother, while his authorized biography held that he was solely of European ancestry, and the son of a provincial leader. Before entering the mining industry, he either managed a store in Oruro, or spent years in private schools.

Eventually, Patiño started in mining with Compania Hunanchaca de Bolivia, a silver company, and then with German Fricke y Compania. Patiño was assigned to collections for the store, and in 1894, he agreed to accept a deed of land in compromise for a $250 debt owed by a prospector. The deed turned out to be for the rocky side of a mountain, and Patino was fired from his job for settling an account in exchange for a worthless piece of property. Legend has it that pppatino was forced to pay back the store from his own funds, and was stuck with his own bad bargain. ^[2]

The mountain, located near Llallagua, turned out to be richer in minerals than anyone had imagined. Although the first several years of work yielded little, the turning point came in 1900 when Patino located a very rich vein of tin, later called "La Salvadora" (The Savior). Over the next 10 years he built up the control of nearby mines and other important mines in Bolivia, including Catavi, Siglo XX, Uncia and Huanuni. By the 1920s he had also bought out Chilean interests in his mining company and went on to buy tin smelters in England and Germany. By the 1940s he controlled the international tin market and was one of the wealthiest men on the world, hence his "title" King of Tin (Rey del Estaño).

He had been living between Europe and Bolivia since around 1912 and after a heart attack in 1924 he moved definitely abroad, first to Paris, then to New York and finally to Buenos Aires where he died. While living in Paris he was appointed Minister to France and represented Bolivia in 1938 at the Evian Conference.

His large wealth made him a heavyweight in Bolivian politics and was locally both admired and hated.

The Bolivian Revolution of 1952 nationalised the Patiño Mines and it is claimed that his heir Antenor Patiño had his hand in the military coup that deposed the leader of the revolution, then President Victor Paz Estenssoro, in the 1960s.