Miners chew coca leaves during a break inside a tunnel of the Rosario Bajo Cooperativa Minera on Cerro Rico, in the Potosi Department, in southern Bolivia, on February 19, 2026. With silver prices reaching record levels, miners continue to risk their lives inside Bolivia's Cerro Rico mine, following veins to exploit deposits of the metal, along with other minerals, in this overworked, collapsing mountain that once produced the majority of silver for the Spanish Empire. Today Cerro Rico is the underground workplace of thousands of miners, as Bolivia's silver output increases year after year. (Photo by Aizar RALDES / AFP)
