Abstract
Examines the survival and proliferation of peasant miners in the Bolivian mining sector, and evaluates the economic and technical efficiency of their operations; in other words, their success in minimizing costs and in recovering metal. Concludes that peasant mining is both economically and technically efficient. Peasants attain X-efficiency or succeed in minimizing costs, because they are paid on a piece-rate basis. Socially, peasant mining creates approximately three times the employment of mechanized mining in Bolivia. Technically, peasants have been responsible for all the major geological discoveries in Bolivia during the past 500 years. The bulk of Bolivia's mines now in operation were discovered by peasants during the past 5 centuries; they were not discovered by modern geological teams. Finally, peasant miners are technically efficient in recovery rates, bleeding the ore to the last drop of metal. -from Author